Beyond the Therapist's Office: Merging Measurement-Based Care and Digital Medicine in the Real World

Abstract

This viewpoint focuses on the ways in which digital medicine and measurement-based care can be utilized in tandem to promote better assessment, patient engagement, and an improved quality of psychiatric care. To date, there has been an underutilization of digital measurement in psychiatry, and there is little discussion of the feedback and patient engagement process in digital medicine. Measurement-based care is a recognized evidence-based strategy that engages patients in an understanding of their outcome data. When implemented as designed, providers review the scores and trends in outcome immediately and then provide feedback to their patients. However, the process is typically confined to office visits, which does not provide a complete picture of a patient's progress and functioning. The process is labor intensive, even with digital feedback systems, but the integration of passive metrics obtained through wearables and apps can supplement office-based observations. This enhanced measurement-based care process can provide a picture of real-world patient functioning through passive metrics (activity, sleep, etc.). This can potentially engage patients more in their health data and involve a critically needed therapeutic alliance component in digital medicine.