College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists

Health services research involves the study of the impact of health care organization, financing, and delivery on access, quality, outcomes and costs of patient care. It is a multidisciplinary field that employs a wide range of research methods that come from disciplines including but not limited to clinical epidemiology, sociology, economics, and organizational psychology. Still, what brings many of these disciplines together is the application of a common framework towards improving quality of care and reducing disparities in health outcomes. The objectives of this presentation is to describe some of the more common conceptual frameworks used by health services researchers, focusing in particular on  emerging frameworks that have been applied to the field of mental health services research, and how clinical and administrative data can be used to address unanswered questions based on these frameworks. The presentation will provide a roadmap for applying the Health Disparities Framework in detecting, understanding, and intervening on gaps in medical outcomes among patients with mental disorders. In addition, the presentation will describe the application of the Replicating Effective Programs framework to implementing patient-centered and psychosocial interventions to reduce disparities in mental disorders, as well as discuss the application of the emerging field of implementation science in facilitating the uptake of evidence-based practices for patients with mental disorders.

1. Summarize the data that supports use of the health services research model to improve patient care.
2. Identify innovative ways to improve consumer self management of illness.
3. Discuss key steps for developing of manuals to guide consumers and clinicians, and strategies for promoting and facilitating their uptake in practice.
4. Explain a process for assessing the impact and potential effectiveness of the treatment models developed from health services research in real world practice.
5. Suggest a means for continual evaluation of the most effective interventions, dissemination of the knowledge, and updating practice to incorporate the most effective interventions.

Activity Dates: 05/03/2011 - 05/03/2014
ACPE Contact Hours: 1.0
ACPE Number: 0284-9999-11-017-H04-P (Knowledge)
Nursing Credit Reminder: Note that ACPE and ACCME credit is accepted for certification renewal.

This course is provided online at cpnp.org and consists of the speaker audio and slides. A PDF file of the slides is also provided and access is available to participants indefinitely although ACPE credit is available only through the course expiration date.

Participants in this course must complete an examination and achieve a score of 60% or greater. Successful completion of the course also requires the completion of a course evaluation. ACPE statements of credit can be retrieved by participants online at cpnp.org immediately upon successful completion of the course.

If you are a pharmacist, nurse practitioner or other healthcare professional involved in the medication therapy management of psychiatric and/or neurological patients, we invite you to participate in this online course.

This programming was supported in part by grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cyberonics, Merk and Sunovion.