This month, my team at ACT.md announced a new partnership with the University of Vermont Medical Center.
The Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families within the Department of Psychiatry will use the ACT.md Care Coordination Record, in conjunction with Epic, to manage medical and behavioral health care as well as preventive health programming for families enrolled in a new and exciting academic medical study.
This study, led by Dr. James Hudziak, seeks to prove the efficacy of an incredible upstream health promotion program called the Vermont Family-Based Approach. This approach encompasses clinical care as well as important but often neglected wellness and educational activities such as meditation, parent coaching, and even music lessons for kids, which is associated with more organized brain activity in developing minds. Check out the full announcement below.
University of Vermont Medical Center Selects ACT.md® Care Coordination Record for Its Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families
Team-based care coordination platform is a core component of innovative family-based healthcare model with behavioral health integration
BOSTON, MA and BURLINGTON, VT (December 2, 2015) — ACT.md, a national provider of team-based care coordination technology and services, today announced a new partnership with The University of Vermont (UVM) Medical Center, part of the state’s only academic medical center. Leading psychiatric researchers and clinicians at the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families will use ACT.md’s Care Coordination Record to test and scale a groundbreaking approach to population health called the Vermont Family-Based Approach.
The Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families (the Center) is housed within the Department of Psychiatry and encompasses research at the University of Vermont, patient care at The University of Vermont Medical Center, and information for Primary Care Providers in the State of Vermont.
The Vermont Family-Based Approach (VFBA) is an innovative healthcare delivery model that supplements medical care for children with behavioral health care services and wellness programs for the whole family. Through the application of evidence-based strategies for health promotion, prevention, and intervention from the family perspective, the Center team hopes to prove that this family-based approach to population health improves health outcomes for families while reducing ER visits, unplanned clinic visits, and after-hours support for these families.
Vermont families enrolled in the academic medical study will experience a comprehensive family wellness program including:
- Medical care for children and behavioral health care for families delivered at home, UVM Pediatrics Clinic, and other UVM locations.
- Nutrition education, exercise lessons and mindfulness training, such as meditation, yoga and tai-chi, which are associated with improved physical health in families and decreased electronic “screen time” for children.
- Musical training for children (violin lessons) which is associated with more organized brain development in children.
- Parenting education to support positive parenting, healthy family communication and community involvement.
“We believe that health runs in families, and that emotional and behavioral health is central to all other aspects of health. So it makes sense to focus healthcare efforts on the entire family, and to integrate behavioral health into these efforts,” said James Hudziak, MD, UVM Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Medicine and Director of the Center, who created the VFBA. Elements of the VFBA are being used in child psychiatry settings, primary care settings and elementary schools nationally and internationally. “As the UVM team works together across clinical and research settings to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Vermont Family-Based Approach, the Care Coordination Record from ACT.md is fundamental to our team’s ability to work together more efficiently and effectively and embrace the family as part of the care team,” said Hudziak.
ACT.md’s Care Coordination Record is HIPAA-compliant and designed for team-based care models like the VFBA. The web- and mobile-accessible platform drives high-performance teamwork in one secure and shared space with tools like:
- Family Care Plans, available online at any time to all team members, including parents, and updated as needed, to help families achieve their health goals.
- Team Members, showing the entire clinical, community, and caregiver team roster surrounding the patient and family.
- Team Tasks, health care activities with defined owners and due dates to prevent critical activities from falling through the cracks and reduce duplication through clear roles and responsibilities.
- Care Pathways, comprised of evidence-based content and organized into clinically- relevant workflows to inform best practices and drive consistency and reliability across a care team.
- Secure Discussions, to allow care teams to have structured conversations about family needs as they do their work, ensuring no task or information gets missed or lost.
- Analytics Dashboards, with real-time data on team performance, workload, and family and clinician engagement, giving teams visibility into critical information for process improvement.
“Using ACT.md, care teams across the country are radically transforming how they communicate and coordinate care for patients and simultaneously improving how families experience the healthcare system,” said Ted Quinn, ACT.md CEO. “The ACT.md team is proud to partner with UVM to help them build better, smarter ways to care for children and families in this country, especially families with complex healthcare needs.”
The VFBA study is enrolling 160 families of 3- to 6-year-olds in the state. The study will last one year and is funded by the UVM Medical Center.
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly Fletcher Allen Health Care), is a 447-bed tertiary care regional referral center serving approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York. Together with our partners at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are Vermont’s academic medical center. The University of Vermont Medical Center also serves as a community hospital for residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties.
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a member of The University of Vermont Health Network, a four-hospital system established to deliver high-quality academic medicine to every community we serve. Our partners are:
- The University of Vermont Health Network — Central Vermont Medical Center
- The University of Vermont Health Network — Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital
- The University of Vermont Health Network — Elizabethtown Community Hospital
For more information visit www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenter or visit our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blog sites at www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenterSocialMedia.
About ACT.md
ACT.md is a digital health company that simplifies complex care for everyone involved. ACT.md Care Coordination Record connects all care team members and drives coordinated action through one cloud-based interoperable platform. ACT.md Care Traffic Control extends the impact of care teams while supporting patients and preventing system failures in care delivery processes. With partners in complex care programs at health plans and healthcare organizations across the country, ACT.md is increasing care coordination efficiency by 30–50% and improving how patients experience the healthcare system. Learn more at http://www.act.md.
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