Abstract
The supply / demand issue in behavioral health care is a well-established fact, and the mental health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to add challenges to an already taxed system. Existing healthcare models are not set up to adequately address the increasing mental health related needs. As such, innovative models are needed to provide patients with access to appropriate, evidence-based behavioral health care within routine clinical care. This paper introduces Precision Behavioral Health (PBH) as an example of such a model. PBH is an innovative, digital first care delivery model that provides an ecosystem of evidence-based digital mental health interventions to patients as a frontline behavioral health treatment within routine care in a large multispecialty group medical center in the United States. This paper describes the implementation of PBH within a practice research network set-up as part of an integrated behavioral health department. We will present how our team leveraged the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance; “What is RE-AIM?,“ n.d.) implementation science framework, which emphasizes the design, dissemination, and implementation processes at the individual, staff, and organizational levels, to prioritize key implementation constructs to enhance the successful integration of PBH within routine care. We describe how each of these constructs were operationalized to aid data gathering for rapid evaluation and lessons learned. We discuss the benefits of these types of initiatives across multiple stakeholders including patients, providers, organizations, payers, and digital intervention vendors.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Behavioral Health Integrated Clinicians at Reliant Medical Group for their enthusiastic approach to clinical innovation. Their flexibility and dedication reflect their ongoing commitment to excellence in patient care.
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Soo Jeong Youn and Brittany Jaso were responsible for the initial conceptualization and broad outline of the article. All authors contributed subsections, feedback, and assisted with References. Soo Jeong Youn, Brittany Jaso, and Mara Eyllon organized the drafted sections, managed the revision process, and completed the final paper in accordance with the journal’s formatting guidelines. All authors reviewed the final paper and approved the manuscript.
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This is a conceptual paper that is submitted as part of a special issue, and does not follow an existing reporting guideline framework. The paper is part of the special issue on: “Practice-Oriented Research”.
Optum Office of Human Subjects Research deemed that the Precision Behavioral Health project did not meet the definition of human subjects research and it was deemed permissible to conduct its operations without direct oversight.
Conflict of Interest
Samuel S. Nordberg has a financial relationship with Mental Health Informatics, which owns the Norse Feedback measure, a measurement-based care tool that has been integrated within routine care at Reliant Medical Group as part of the Precision Behavioral Health initiative described in this paper. Samuel S. Nordberg declares a potential conflict of interest. Dr. Nordberg has a plan in place with OptumCare and Reliant Medical Group to monitor that the potential conflict of interest does not impact methods, results, and publications related to the Norse Feedback measure or Precision Behavioral Health. No other authors have a conflict of interest to disclose.
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Youn, S., Jaso, B., Eyllon, M. et al. Leveraging Implementation Science to Integrate Digital Mental Health Interventions as part of Routine Care in a Practice Research Network. Adm Policy Ment Health 51, 348–357 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-023-01292-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-023-01292-9