New Internal Medicine Data Have Been Reported by Researchers at University of Washington (Transforming Population-based Depression Care: a Quality Improvement Initiative Using Remote, Centralized Care Management)

2020 SEP 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on Health and Medicine - Internal Medicine have been presented. According to news reporting from Seattle, Washington, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “With the growing prevalence of value-based contracts, health systems are incentivized to consider population approaches to service delivery, particularly for chronic conditions like depression. To this end, UW Medicine implemented the Depression-Population Approach to Health (PATH) program in primary care (PC) as part of a system-wide Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) quality improvement (QI) initiative.”

Financial supporters for this research include US Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, NIH.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Washington, “To examine the feasibility of a pilot PATH program and its impact on clinical and process-of-care outcomes. A large, diverse, geographically disparate academic health system in Western Washington State including 28 PC clinics across five networks. Program Description The PATH program was a population-level, centralized, measurement-based care intervention that utilized a clinician to provide remote monitoring of treatment progress via chart review and facilitate patient engagement when appropriate. The primary goals of the program were to improve care engagement and increase follow-up PHQ-9 assessments for patients with depression and elevated initial PHQ-9 scores. Program Evaluation We employed a prospective, observational study design, including commercially insured adult patients with new depression diagnoses and elevated initial PHQ-9 scores. The pilot intervention group, consisting of accountable care network (ACN) self-enrollees (N= 262), was compared with a similar commercially insured cohort (N= 2527) using difference-in-differences analyses adjusted for patient comorbidities, initial PHQ-9 score, and time trends. The PATH program was associated with three times the odds of PHQ-9 follow-up (OR 3.28, 95% CI 1.79-5.99), twice the odds of a follow-up PC clinic visit (OR 1.74, 95% CI 0.99-3.08), and twice the odds of treatment response, defined as reduction in PHQ-9 score by >= 50% (OR 2.02, 95% CI 0.97-4.21).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Our results demonstrate that a centralized, remote care management initiative is both feasible and effective for large academic health systems aiming to improve depression outcome ascertainment, treatment engagement, and clinical care.”

For more information on this research see: Transforming Population-based Depression Care: a Quality Improvement Initiative Using Remote, Centralized Care Management. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2020;():. Journal of General Internal Medicine can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of General Internal Medicine - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1525-1497)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Denise Chang, University of Washington, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Med Ctr, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. Additional authors for this research include Andrew D. Carlo, Marc Avery, Jurgen Unutzer, Sara Khor, David R. Flum, Lauren Drake and E. Sally Lee.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-06136-y. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)