Software for Evidenced Based Practices

It appears we will again focus on such acronyms as EBT (Evidenced Based Treatment) and EBP (Evidenced Based Practice).  Six years ago Sequest sponsored a Special Report within Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow focused on Evidence Based Practices.  Sequest founder Len Brink and I wrote articles describing how the EMR, EHT and all software tools are major necessities to such practice http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-2778918_ITM  and http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-2778919_ITM .

I am writing of this topic more as a clinician than a software vendor.  While in graduate school I realized the power and use of such functions as scoring, indexes, and standardized assessments.  When I hit the clinical field I also found how rarely they are used and how little science is used within care delivery processes.  I have long since been a supporter of utilizing data to improve care, monitor progress and develop structured treatment planning protocols.  So a focus on EBT is major excitement to me as both a software vendor and a clinical person.The challenge is that EBT is so misunderstood.  I am often asked ”does your software contain evidenced based practices”?  I sarcastically respond what evidence and which practice?  The application of EBT is not a software issue-it is a process issue within behavioral health and addiction treatment.  Our software allows provides standardized diagnostic specific measurements the foundation of many EBT practices as well as automates the aggregation of data and facilitates the comparative analysis against previous collected evidence/research. So when discussing the EBT process look for ways to utilize EMRs and EHRs to quickly and effectively automate data collection and analysis of data.  I believe the core of EBT is in the comparison with the evidence–what are you looking to replicate, what are desired results of the replicated interventions, medications, etc.  Remember the software, EHR, EMR are a tool that supports and replicates a process- it does not deliver EBT.