Behavioral Health Integration in the Medical Home and Its Facilitation by HIT

Date: Thursday, April 14th 2011, from 1:00 - 2:30pm ETOverview: In the rush to develop collaborative care practices the use of health IT is a powerful, often overlooked, and crucial element. The University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care in northern Vermont have embarked on a project to develop Patient-Centered Medical Homes in each of our primary care practices. As part of that effort, there is a commitment that mental health substance abuse and health behavior services are central elements of the development. Dr. Kessler, a health psychologist, directs this effort. Dr. Burdick a family physician, is physician leader for outpatient implementation of the Fletcher Allen Helath Care Epic-based EHR, PRISM. Their collaboration has resulted in this project. The webinar will explore the backround and history, measure selection and process development, current status and future plans.Presenters: Rodger Kessler PhD is a clinical health psychologist in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont and practices at Berlin Family Health.  He has been involved in IT applications for mental health, substance abuse and health behavior services for many years. He has developed the Fletcher Allen collaborative care program as part of the Fletcher Allen Health Care patient-centered medical home. Tim Burdick M.D. is  family physician practicing in Berlin Family Health in  Vermont where he collaborates clinically with Rodger Kessler. He has had an interest and background in IT applications and an interest in the psychological dimensions of medical issues. He spends about half of his time developing applications in PRISM and is particularly involved with generating decision support tools and extracting EHR data..