Technology Trends in Evaluation
In my role as an evaluation assistant for addiction and mental health services in Calgary, a large part of my job is to administer and report on patient treatment outcome measures. For example, I will attend the first and last sessions of a group therapy program and administer a suite of outcome measures to see the effectiveness of the group on patients. The results from these pre and post outcome measurement analyses may; guide future changes of how the group is facilitated, identity patient successes or areas where treatment still needs to focus on, and the results are also often used to show impacts of the group as a whole in order to receive funding.
In the past the data collection and reporting process for outcome measurement included paper surveys, data entry, and manual analyses and graph making. Over the last year, with the adoption of iPad tablets and a mobile survey software called REDCap this is what the new process looks like:
* Evaluator attends 1st treatment session and administers outcome measures on iPad tablets to patients
* Once patients have filled out the measures on the tablets the Evaluator will sync the tablets to the online system and all the data is automatically transferred to the computer within seconds
* The data is copy and pasted into an Excel report template and graphs auto populate
* Graphs are emailed to Clinicians
* The above process is repeated for each patient at their last session to compare to their first
Once the measures are completed by patients the process for the patients and Clinicians to get the results back happens within minutes. The original process took much more of the Evaluators time and the turnaround for getting the data back to the Clinicians and patients was weeks slower.
Patient Engagement & Involvement in Treatment
Not only does the new outcome measurement process benefit the Clinicians and the Evaluators, but the patients have also greatly benefited from the change. Patients receive their treatment outcome data during the following session after completing the measures on tablets. This way the measures are still fresh in the patients’ minds and they can use the information for setting treatment goals. Another way of using technology to increase patient engagement in treatment can be seen with the use of online mental health treatment programs.
e-Mental Health Care
Online therapy is starting to become a popular form of mental health treatment. For example, my department is currently evaluating a new Online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Treatment Model. One of the main supporting factors to integrating e-mental health services is high wait list times for outpatient services. There is currently a two year waiting time for some of the mental health services in Alberta. Moock (2014) describes some of the other benefits of online mental health treatment which include being: anonymous, more flexible access to 24 hour a day care, accessible to remote areas, and more cost-effective as it uses fewer health care professionals and infrastructure. For the right patient I can see online mental health treatment being very beneficial.
From my experience, technology can be extremely helpful with streamlining evaluation processes and increasing service accessibility. I know that to some, the use of technology can be overwhelming and intimidating, but through increased exposure to electronic resources I am hopeful that technology will improve efficiencies within my area of work.
References
Moock. J. (2014). Support from the internet for individuals with mental disorders: advantages and disadvantages of e-mental health service delivery. Frontiers in Public Health. 65(2), 1-6. doi: 10.3389/pubh.2014.00065
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