Naakesh A. Dewan

Barriers and resistance to informatics in behavioral health.

Susan Harding stood by the coffee machine early one Monday, taking in a megadose of caffeine—the traditional drug of choice for computer types. As the project leader for the implementation of the new practice management system for the Gotham Center for Behavioral Health, she was contemplating the typically hectic week ahead. Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud and rather excited voice of Dan St. James, a middle-aged therapist in the practice, talking to someone out in the hall.

Information technology essentials for behavioral health clinicians

Information technology essentials for behavioral health clinicians , Information technology essentials for behavioral health clinicians , کتابخانه مرکزی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی تهران

Summary and Look Forward

The goal of this book is to provide an overview of the important components that touch the technological expansion. The use of computer technology is more prevalent and the future will bring different changes. Technology innovations supportive of mental health care will be pervasive, continuous, and disruptive. Clinicians will become “IT implementers” whether they practice in solo offices, group practices, or large systems of care. There are a number of trends emerging that will have a direct impact on the mental health professions. One trend is that the scientific foundation for mental health is shifting and another is that technology is becoming smaller and some technology is wearable. The role of blogs, wikis, websites, podcasts, on-demand information, etc. will become more important in educating and helping people. The digital age is well ensconced in our day-to-day lives and our goal is that this book will help the reader understand the impact of information on their mental health practices.

Leading Change in Implementing Technology

What is true, unmitigated leadership? What is leadership in health care informatics? Who is leading, the system of the technologist or the executive officers, or both? Since the beginning of mankind we know that human beings learn better from failed attempts rather than from glorious successes. This fact is certainly applicable in today’s world of advanced technology. Ray Delany, a management consultant for Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ), describes the essential necessity of the human factor of leadership being the key tool in “obtaining good results in technology areas” as it “is increasingly a matter of mastering what the technology people call ‘people skills’ or ‘soft skills’.”2 It is no longer, and not just, putting a technology system in place in an organization and passing out a user manual with an accompanying “quick tips card.” With increasing knowledge of the importance of human capital, the workplace has instituted professional development teams to train staff in the effort of retaining those same staff as corporate assets. This is true across the workforce, which includes public companies, the private sector, nonprofits, and the niche of behavioral health care organizations.

The Promise of Health Information Technology in Behavioral Health and Informatics: An Overview

Behavioral health conditions are leading causes of disease burden around the world. Informatics innovations play a role in reducing that disease burden through accelerating neurobiological, neuroimaging, and health services, and epidemiological research efforts. Information technology itself is creating social connections and social experiences that promote well-being. Informatics efforts for clinical purposes are however adopted at a much slower rate than those that support research.

Evaluating the Impact of Behavioral Healthcare Informatics

As anyone who has implemented an informatics system can attest to, one of the most challenging issues when evaluating such a system is developing methods to isolate the effects of information technology (IT) within the dynamic environment of behavioral healthcare. There are many books and articles written about evaluation principles and methods, and this chapter does not seek to supplant them; instead, an overview of evaluation and its role in behavioral healthcare informatics system implementation will be presented. Behavioral health has traditionally spent less on IT as a percent of revenues than the medical and surgical fields, but as shifts in public policy begin to force the hand of change, evaluation of the return on investment of informatics must be undertaken if behavioral healthcare is to maximize its potential.

Behavioral Health and Informatics: An Overview

The

Leadership Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Information Officer

99 billion behavioral health industry has gone through dramatic changes during the last decade. Managed behavioral care systems have grown from covering 60 million people to covering over 170 million in the United States. At the same time, 23 states have received waivers from the federal government to transform Medicaid fee-for-service care into managed care delivery systems. This trend will spread to all 50 states and five territories of the United States. Over 2,000 federally funded community mental health centers are also embracing transforming information technologies.

Mental Health Practice in a Digital World

Computerized information systems in behavioral health care have existed since the 1960s.1 The first systems were mainly administrative patient data systems, which were followed by the development of computer systems to support clinical processes. Later systems incorporated both functions and were able to provide benefits for both management and clinical levels. Benefits to management include support for planning and allocating of resources, clinical audit, and outcome measurement.2 At the clinical level information systems can support the coordination of services, patient assessment, treatment plans, and reviews, and provide a basis for continuity of care.3 Despite the early introduction of such systems and potential benefits, the diffusion of information technology in this area has been slow.4 The diffusion of technology in behavioral health began to increase in the 1990s.