Leveraging Health Information Technology to Improve School Based Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY In the US roughly in children experience a mental health problem severe enough to warrant intervention of them receive treatment in the education sector However schools are often unable to deliver high quality evidence based treatments The goal of this project is to improve the quality of school based mental health SMH services by leveraging health information technology to facilitate measurement based care MBC an evidence based practice that utilizes client or caregiver reported data to monitor treatment progress and inform clinical decision making MBC has consistently been shown to improve mental health treatment outcomes for youth and adults leading to faster recovery Although MBC is not routinely used in schools our prior work has found that digital measurement feedback systems which gather client generated treatment outcome data and deliver results to clinicians can facilitate MBC Despite increasingly widespread use in specialty mental health settings no commercially available measurement feedback systems have been developed or adapted for use in the school context Given the compelling evidence for the effectiveness of MBC the broad influence of SMH and the current lack of measurement feedback systems designed for schools we propose to adapt and market a measurement feedback system known as OwlOutcomes or Owl for SMH Using the Contextualized Technology Adaption Process which details a sequence of phases for adapting existing health information technology to novel settings and incorporating user centered design methodology which emphasizes iterative development of parsimonious and compelling products the current proposal will maximize the usability compatibility and utility of an innovative product Owl for Schools Owl S to optimally support the implementation of MBC in schools In Aim a an evaluation of the implementation context i e SMH and b an assessment of the un adapted Owl via lab based usability testing with SMH clinicians will inform the adaption of Owl for SMH c an evaluation of the usability compatibility and utility of the modified Owl Owl S via in vivo field testing will identify additional adaptations needed In Aim a pilot randomized trial of the fully adapted Owl S will assess a the impact of access to Owl S on SMH clinicians use of measurement based care as well as b Owl S ease of implementation in SMH as indicated by school clinicians rating of its usability compatibility and utility The completion of these Aims will result in a measurement feedback system adapted for SMH use that is easily implementable Aim b and effective in increasing MBC use Aim a and thus improving SMH care quality The school districts in the US represent a total addressable market of $ M per annum based on a SaaS model and an annual subscription fee of $ clinician per district This STTR will support the product adaptation and validation of Owl S and in so doing create an innovative product that will fill a need in a very large and currently untapped market with the ultimate goal of improving the public health impact of school based mental health PROJECT NARRATIVE The vast majority of youth mental health treatments are provided in schools making school based mental health a promising means of improving mental health service access for youths However schools are rarely able to provide high quality evidence based practice which greatly reduces the impact of school mental health services This project aims to adapt a health information technology known as OwlOutcomes for Schools Owl S to support the implementation of measurement based care an efficient and robust evidence based practice in the school setting to improve youth mental health care quality