DIAGNOSTIC/TREATMENT MONITORING SOFTWARE FOR PSYCHIATRY

Mood Sciences is seeking funding to develop and validate DSM-IV-based self-report software for diagnOsing and tracking Axis I Major Depressive Episode (MDE). The first computerized instrument to assign a diagnosis and a severity score with a single set of questions, the software has multiple commercial applications as a cost-cutting and quality- improvement instrument in both in- and outpatient settings. Designed to stand alone or as a diagnostic and tracking engine for existing Medical Information Systems, the software will help individual physicians, hospitals, managed care organizations, insurers, and Employee Assistance Programs to provide efficient, quality care. Phase I will involve development and programming of the questions for the MDE module into a prepared interface and testing the validity and reliability of the diagnoses and severity scores the software generates against gold- standard instruments. For diagnosis, the kappa between our software and the SCID must be at least 0.75, and agreement with the SCID not meaningfully less than the IDD. For severity measures, correlation with the clinician-administered HRS-D must be at least 0.8 and not meaningfully less than between the IDD and HRS-D. Retest reliability must be comparable to the published reliabilities of the SCID1 IDD, and clinician-administered HRS-D.