3 Eras of Behavioral Health Technology: Evolution, Innovation & Adoption

The past several years have seen accelerated technology application for healthcare organizations across the continuum of care, yet we're going to see more change in the next ten years than most of us have seen in our collective lifetime. To understand where we are going, we should reflect on the history that brought us to where we are today. The origins of healthcare IT adoption for providers stemmed from the financial compliance era for electronic health records (EHRs). Historically, behavioral health providers across the country had been slower to adopt healthcare IT in comparison to other care settings; but the shift of bringing consumers and clinicians to the technology table has driven rapid innovation and development of solutions and services.At no other time in our history has person-to-person collaboration been more important to the outcomes of those we serve. Technology adoption requires more than just the IT team. Success requires that every function of an organization needs a seat at the table. The caregivers, clinicians, administration, operators, financial billing and more because these technology systems are dependent upon each other to work extraordinarily well. Each stakeholder, their perspective or persona is absolutely valid, and each influences the others as a cross representation team at the table designing not only for today but for tomorrow. In this episode, Tom Herzog, Chief Operating Officer, speaks with Dr. Dennis Morrison, Chief Clinical Officer about his unique experience adopting and applying healthcare technology throughout his career. A psychologist by training, Dr. Denny has been in various corners of the healthcare landscape over the last 30 years, running a community mental health center (CMHC) and leading a research institute before landing at Netsmart. The thought leaders unpack the past, present and future of behavioral health care delivery including the intersection of clinical and technology, improved outcomes and next-generation healthcare IT on the horizon.Join us to hear their experiences as we discuss:History of healthcare IT and the financial compliance eraAccelerating technology adoption for behavioral healthcare organizationsDesigning workflows with the patient and clinician in mindPerspectives of peers and the recovery movementTreatment and recovery models for acute problems, chronic illness and addictionPredictions for augmented intelligence, predictive analytics, DNA and big dataFuture technology innovations transforming healthcareFinally, Denny shares a suggestion on the latest reads that he’s found fascinating. Denny recently finished a series of articles for the Netsmart CareThreads blog (https://www.ntst.com/Blog) on the pure movement, and he found inspiration and background in a book about the history of addiction treatment in the United States called Slaying the Dragon. Denny states, “It’s a fascinating read about how we have used peers in health care, particularly in addiction treatment and how that came about – it’s absolutely fascinating.” Download Slaying the Dragon Today!To hear more episodes like this one, look for the Netsmart CareThreads podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts.