Web-Based Partners in Care for Primary Care Practices

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Depression and other mental health problems are among the most prevalent and disabling disorders--ranking second only to cardiovascular conditions in loss of disability-adjusted life years. Surprisingly, the majority of people with depression, who seek treatment, use primary care settings for treatment rather than mental health service. Unfortunately, primary care settings do not typically provide a high level of quality for the treatment of depression because primary care physicians often do not receive sufficient training about depression and because they often do not have sufficient time to assess, educate, treat, and follow-up. In response to this problem, RAND created the Partners in Care (PIC) collaborative care intervention designed to provide primary care physicians and their staff with specialized training and access to resources in the areas of depression detection and treatment. In a 5-year clinical trial conducted by RAND, PIC was found to be effective in improving the quality of care for patients with depression as well as clinical outcomes, mental health functioning, and work retention of depressed patients. ISA will create a Web-based adaptation of the PIC program. The Web-based PIC training will not simply be a compendium of the text-based information, but an interactive, multimedia experience that will allow self-paced learning and broader dissemination of the PIC program. Phase I activities include prototype development, interviews with physicians and managed care organizations, feasibility and usability testing with a sample of physicians and nurses, and securing a Phase II field test site.