Our Patient's "Afters" and "In-Betweens"

Over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to attend several behavioral health and healthcare technology events. It has been great to interact in-person and reconnect with many incredible people who are innovating and pushing us to improve care.?

One of these events I attended was the annual meeting of the National Association of Behavioral Health in Washington DC. The first night, we all had the opportunity to hear from Thomas R. Insel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and co-founder and President of Mindstrong Health. His address was inspiring, and I learned more about digital phenotyping, mobile interventions, and digital care management. However, it was during the Q&A, he said something that I haven’t stopped thinking about. Someone asked “...you have a room full of hospital administrators. If you had their job, what would you do day 1?” And his response was, “...I would figure out what happens before they arrive and what happens after they leave…”

As a clinician, one of the biggest challenges I have had was the “afters” and “in-betweens,” etc. What happens to these patients when they’re not right in front of me? The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created another pandemic of sorts that involves the intersection of three discouraging events:?

1. Increased number of patients needing mental health treatment?

2. The lack of providers able to triage that increased demand

3. The burnout of the few providers that we already have.

It has further emphasized the need for technology to scale these limited resources and provide an environment for patients to truly get help, whether or not they’re in front of a healthcare provider. I am encouraged by tele-health platforms like Mindstrong, Tava Health, among others that help individuals get live, scheduled online therapy catered to their personal preferences and specific struggles. However, in my clinical practice, I also know that I spent anywhere from 40-50% of my patient interaction gathering info, health interviews, and just catching up on what happened IN-BETWEEN these visits and only the remaining 50-60% on the treatment itself. In our current pandemic lens and resource strain, this percentage has only gotten worse.

My attendance at the NABH meeting has made me even more excited to continue to tackle the challenge of helping patients get better care all while making life easier on our already taxed mental health providers and clinicians. Adding more providers isn’t going to solve the issue nor is it even possible. This problem isn’t going away. It is time we look further to technology to augment, empower, and support our providers.

Dr. Brett Talbot, PhD is a licensed clinical Psychologist and the Chief Clinical Officer at Videra Health, a patient interaction platform that focuses on using asynchronous video responses to allow patients to check-in with their providers from anywhere, anytime, from any device and be alerted when abnormal results are present.