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Health care leaders define “precision medicine” as an individualized approach to treatment that takes into account factors such as the patient’s genetics, environment and lifestyle. In one of its simplest forms familiar to many of us, matching a transfusion recipient’s blood type to a donor’s is an example of precision medicine. At one of its most technologically advanced levels, precision medicine has been seen for some time as redefining the treatment of cancer.
But while many foresee precision medicine revolutionizing several health care disciplines, progress in the addiction and mental health arena has been limited. The behavioral health community faces an obstacle to implementation that is not as challenging for some other branches of medicine. With reimbursement for providers’ core services already lagging in many cases, it becomes difficult to envision a scenario where current payment structures would cover expensive genetic testing or brain imaging that could identify individualized approaches to treatment.
As a result, many in the behavioral health community will be closely monitoring a federally financed research project that will try to identify more accessible tools to guide personalized care. Earlier this year, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announced eight research team recipients of grants under the IMPACT-MH initiative. IMPACT-MH, or Individually Measured Phenotypes to Advance Computational Translation in Mental Health, aims to uncover behavioral measures that can broaden the understanding of what’s happening in the brain of someone who’s struggling.
Researchers will test the idea that these measures can be obtained through accessible computer-based tasks that patients can easily complete, often outside a medical setting. In some of the funded projects, IMPACT-MH research teams will use AI models to analyze participant performance. Finding patterns in this way could ultimately help to identify who is likely to thrive under which specific treatment intervention.
The project website for IMPACT-MH includes an NIMH director’s message that states, “Behavioral tests enable research that reaches more — and more diverse — groups of people, because the tests can be remotely delivered (with smartphones or other internet-linked devices) and easily repeated (to detect differences among people and changes within a person over time). This reach will help ensure that the results can improve mental health care as well as enhance mental health equity for all.”
The key findings that this work could produce may help fulfill the promise of precision medicine in both mental health and substance use treatment.
It likely will be a while before precision medicine in behavioral health comes close to reaching the level it has in fields such as cancer care. But providers can prepare now for anticipated changes in clinical practice. Organizations that have simplified their processes for collecting and reporting reliable, actionable data will find themselves at a clear advantage in improving clinical care.
Our AURA behavioral health EHR offers powerful analytics and decision support. It is ideally positioned for a dynamic environment in which individualized behavioral health treatment not only becomes more likely, but also achieves this using tools accessible to all patients regardless of insurance status or other circumstances. Let us discuss with you the solutions that will allow your organization to flourish in a changing landscape.
