Utah Project Integrates Mental, Physical Healthcare
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Utah begins testing smartphone-enabled primary and mental healthcare collaborations.
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The Association for Utah Community Health has launched a care management program designed to improve healthcare outcomes and patient satisfaction, as well as increase cost effectiveness of treatment by using smartphone technology, according to a press release. During initial implementation of the project, Utah SmartCare will target 500 patients who exhibit a co-morbid condition as well as a mental illness.
Geared towards low-income Utah populations, the release explains, the project “focuses on integrating mental and physical health delivery through an innovative technology platform, with the goal of improving the quality and cost of healthcare for this historically underserved population.”
The partnership includes three mental health authorities, two community health clinics and the patients they each serve, and it is an innovative project not just in terms of the technology it is adopting, but also in the integration of the mental and physical healthcare teams. lan Pruhs, Executive Director at the Association for Utah Community Health (AUCH) which is leading the collaborative project, said, “Innovative approaches like this are crucial to the successful integration of physical and mental health.”
Brandon Hatch, Executive Director of Davis Behavioral Health, one of the local mental health authorities participating in the Utah SmartCare initiative, added, “We’re already receiving great feedback from clients enrolled in the program. This data will allow us to better assess how our clients are doing between appointments and catch any potential problems earlier, leading to better clinical outcomes. Davis Behavioral Health delivers mental health services for 6,000 people across Davis County. Of these patients, nearly 80 percent live at or below the poverty line.”
In the past, integrating primary care with behavioral health delivery has proven an effective yet elusive method of treating patients with mental health conditions, according to Dr. Anmol Madan, Co-Founder and CEO of Ginger.io. “Up until this point, we haven’t had the technology to effectively measure how patients are feeling outside of a care setting. Now that this remote data is more readily available, we are integrating it with the existing healthcare system and using it to deliver the sort of personalized outreach that improves care for patients and drives down costs, both of which substantially benefit the entire system.”