Recently, the Medical Internet Research Journal published some important data highlighting the effectiveness of psychiatric care delivered through telehealth: Those in the treatment group were four times more likely to experience remission of suicidal ideation, 3 times.
Dr Mimi Winsberg, medical director of Brightside Health, who led the study, said: “This is remarkable because telehealth has traditionally been ill-equipped to treat people with symptoms. most serious mental health problems due to the supervision needed to actually provide safe, effective treatment.” learn.
We spoke with Winsberg to take a closer look at this study and the implications of the results for the future of mental health and telehealth.
Q. Please talk about your new study examining the impact of telepsychology on reducing suicidal ideation over time. Who participated? What care did they receive? What role did technology play?
ONE. Research, published in JMIR Formation Researchsought to determine whether Brightside Health’s telehealth platform, equipped with accurate prescribing clinical decision support, could successfully reduce suicidal ideation in enrolled patients. , compared with a control group that tracked their symptoms on the platform without care.
Another goal of the study was to characterize the symptom groups of patients with suicidal thoughts in order to better understand the psychiatric symptoms associated with suicidal feelings. The large-scale study included participants with diverse geographies and socio-demographics.
It includes a total of 8,581 people who have completed digital adoption on the Brightside platform. Of those, 8,366 people were selected to receive psychiatric care from Brightside, while 215 people tracked their symptoms on the platform without getting care.
People who chose to receive psychiatric care through Brightside received a minimum of 12 weeks of treatment that included video visits with their provider, asynchronous messaging, and at least one prescription. psychiatric drugs.
Brightside’s technology platform is used to provide clinically validated measures of depression and anxiety, as well as clinical presentation, medical history, and demographic questionnaires. A proprietary precision prescribing platform embedded within the technology platform analyzes these data points using an experimentally-sourced algorithm to provide real-time care guidelines and clinical decision support for patients. providers using computerized symptom cluster analysis.
Q. Research has led to some very promising results. Please describe them and the success you have had with telemedicine.
ONE. The study found that patients who signed up for Brightside Health’s telehealth platform had a reduction in suicidal thoughts after 12 weeks of treatment. Patients treated through Brightside Health were also 4.3 times more likely to experience a reduction in suicidal ideation than the control group followed on the platform but without care.
The results demonstrated that a telehealth platform equipped with clinical decision support is an effective intervention for symptoms of suicidal ideation.
In addition, we found that suicidal ideation was more highly correlated with perceived symptoms of hopelessness and a poor sense of self-worth than with physical symptoms of depression such as dreams. disrupted sleep and low energy.
H. Traditionally, Telehealth was not equipped to treat these types of patients. What made the difference here?
ONE. In the past, we did not rely on telehealth solutions to address more severe depressive symptoms. Clinicians are hesitant to treat suicidal individuals through telehealth because of awareness of the risks.
However, the results of this study are significant as they demonstrate efficacy in treating these symptoms through a telehealth platform with clinical decision support, which may help alleviate concerns about using telehealth to address suicidal ideation.
Telehealth can involve more than just connecting providers and patients via video cameras. The telehealth platform used for research is equipped with new features such as remote patient monitoring and clinical decision support.
A sophisticated telehealth intervention that can carefully monitor symptom presentation and outcomes with measurement-based care, and deliver real-time interventions with learning machine and algorithm-based clinical decision support to choose the best treatment.
Q. What does all of this mean for the future of telemedicine and mental health?
ONE. The future of mental health through telemedicine promises broader adoption of solutions for the vast majority of behavioral health conditions, even those with increasingly severe symptoms. We could see telehealth deployed for more serious mental illnesses, especially as telehealth platforms can incorporate new technologies to optimize care delivery. squirrel.
In addition, when payers and providers work together to deliver care more efficiently; Telehealth will likely become more than a vehicle for providing care, but also a way to enhance care delivery and deliver highly effective care to those who need it most. quick way.
At Brightside Health, we will continue to study the impact of telehealth on many mental health conditions, including those on the higher end of the severity axis. To that end, we are launching Crisis Care, the first of its kind to be offered nationally and through telehealth to treat patients with active suicidal thoughts. pole.
This program is based on the evidence-based Collaborative Management and Evaluation (CAMS) framework. This study in JMIR . Formation Research laid the foundation for this program, and we see a clear need for such a national program in the United States, where one person dies by suicide every 11 minutes. We look forward to continuing to advance the important work – and save this person’s life.
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