“Concert Health and AIMS Center Join Forces to Expand Telepsychiatry Care”
Concert Health, a leading Collaborative Care platform, and the AIMS Center at the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences have announced a three-year project to enhance mental health care for 2,700 patients with complex psychiatric disorders in primary care settings. This initiative, funded by a $2.5 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), will utilize a Telepsychiatry Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) to identify and treat patients with bipolar disorder and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The project aims to scale up findings from the PCORI-funded SPIRIT study, which demonstrated the effectiveness of telepsychiatry collaborative care in improving outcomes for patients with bipolar disorder and PTSD in medically underserved areas. Over the next three years, Concert Health and the AIMS Center will partner with more than 150 primary care clinics across several states to train care teams in Collaborative Care management. This approach involves screening patients for behavioral health needs, providing treatment, and offering psychiatric consultation.
Dr. John Fortney from the AIMS Center highlighted the significance of scaling up telepsychiatry collaborative care, while Dr. Virna Little, co-founder of Concert Health, emphasized the importance of evidence-based models for treating patients in underserved primary care settings.
Concert Health’s expertise lies in leveraging telepsychiatry collaborative care paired with a behavioral health care team and technology platform. They have driven strong clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction through their partnerships with leading health systems.
The PCORI funding award is pending completion of a review process, and PCORI aims to fund patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research.
About Concert Health: Concert Health is focused on building America’s largest behavioral health platform, making it easier for primary care physicians to deliver high-quality care through Collaborative Care.
About the AIMS Center, University of Washington School of Medicine: The AIMS Center is dedicated to transforming healthcare and improving patient outcomes by translating and researching evidence-based approaches to behavioral health integration, including Collaborative Care.
