Digital Health Supports for Mental Health and Addictions

Our team at the eHealth Centre of Excellence is here to assist the primary care clinicians in your OHT with the adoption and integration of digital health tools that can support them to provide informed, integrated care to their mental health & addictions patient population.

Available now from the Evidence2Practice Ontario (E2P) program: an EMR-integrated decision support tool that can be integrated directly into the clinician's EMR and is based on current best practices related to anxiety disorders and depression in adults.

The E2P tool makes it easier for clinicians to access information at the point of care on quality standards related to anxiety disorders and depression in adults and offers streamlined modules to support clinicians with appropriate assessment, diagnoses, management, and transitions in care. It is currently available for OSCAR Pro and Accuro QHR, with a version for Telus PS Suite coming later in 2023.

The following screenshots are from the OSCAR Pro version.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the assessment module

The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 forms can be launched from this tool
The score, severity level, date, as well as graph will update once the forms have been completed

Figure 2: Screenshot of the management module

Screenshot of the management module

Figure 3: Screenshot of the medication module

Figure 3: Screenshot capturing one aspect of the patient resources section, which contains a collection of curated resources for your patient and their caregivers.

The eHealth Centre of Excellence has conducted research that shows that patient tablets or eForms can support efficient screening, assessment and information management of patient populations.

Information submitted by the patient is uploaded directly into the clinician's EMR and while tablets and eForms can be used for many purposes, the most prevalent use of tablets is for mental health assessments.

As our survey results indicate, mental health assessments facilitate more honest responses from patients who may not be comfortable discussing details about their mental health in a face-to-face interaction.

For the primary care clinician, the assessments support a more comprehensive picture of the patient’s mental health condition, treatment goals, and potential risk for suicide – thereby ensuring that a safety plan for the patient is created where appropriate.

Other digital health solutions, such as eServices (eConsult/eReferral), Virtual Care, and Online Appointment Booking, can also support patients with needs related to mental health and addictions.

Ontario eServices Program:

eConsult provides quick and secure access to expert advice from specialists, including psychiatrists.

If an in-person appointment is needed, eReferral can facilitate seamless referrals, with information autopopulated from the EMR directly into the referral form. Patients can receive email notifications about the status of their referral, reducing anxiety.

Virtual care can be an efficient and approachable manner of delivering care related to mental health and addictions, enabling patients to access care remotely from a location of their choice through a secure online platform.

With the world becoming more and more digital every day, many patients will feel more comfortable using an Online Appointment Booking service as opposed to calling in to their primary care clinic for support, particularly if they need to disclose information about their mental health in order to book the appointment.