This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
UVM receives grant to study behavioral, medical care integration
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Researchers from the University of Vermont will receive an $18.5 million grant from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study the impact of integrating behavioral care services into primary care settings, according to a press release.
Benjamin Littenberg, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Vermont, and colleagues will conduct the 5-year Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care project to evaluate how collaboration between primary care physicians and behavioral health professionals, including psychologists and social workers, could improve health outcomes of patients with chronic illnesses that have behavioral comorbidities. The researchers will then compare the success of these integrated practices with practices known as ‘co-locations’ —primary care practices that have behavioral therapists on-site, according to the release. The team is aiming to recruit 30 practices nationwide, which could include up to 60 patients per practice.
According to Littenberg, studying the benefits of integrated care is vital, since patients with chronic illnesses are often referred for behavioral therapy or motivational interviews, but are not likely to follow up with the referrals. These patients often find dealing with additional doctors, added costs, booking appointments and more billing offices, inconvenient and may interfere with their motivation to begin or continue treatment, according to the release.
To assess the efficacy of the integrated system, study participants will inform researchers as to their success in getting treatment, along with how they are doing overall and whether their lives and health have improved.
In addition to other health care providers, three patients will serve as co-investigators for the study. The patients will have either dealt with their own combination of chronic illness and behavioral health problems, or a family member’s.
The researchers hope results from the study help identify ways to cut costs, increase efficiency and improve overall patient health outcomes, according to Littenberg.
“The question here is really about how to design the systems for better care,” Littenberg said in the release. “ … If it was easy, we would have done it ages ago.”