Pilot study reveals telemedicine could improve geriatric depression
Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital, along with other organizations, have developed a telemedicine-based depression care protocol in home healthcare. The early findings from their pilot study were presented Oct. 3 at the 29th annual meeting and exposition of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice.
"Using telemedicine in home care to provide disease management for geriatric depression is timely for several reasons,” said the study's lead author, Thomas Sheeran, PhD, clinical psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. “The home care industry is already using telemedicine to provide chronic disease management for many medical illnesses, such as heart disease. However, guideline-based depression care often is not included in these monitoring programs.”
According to the preliminary findings, research suggests that telemedicine can be successfully used to address mental health needs of the elderly in community settings. "Work by the Cornell Homecare Research Partnership and others has shown that community health nurses--who typically are the telehealth disease managers in home care --can identify and successfully provide this service for their elderly home care patients," added Sheeran.
The project began at the Cornell Homecare Research Project at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and was completed at Rhode Island Hospital, in collaboration with the University of Vermont's telemedicine program in Burlington. In addition to the three academic centers, the project partnered with three home health agencies in New York, Vermont and Florida to integrate and pilot evidence-based depression care into existing telehealth programs.
Through the pilot study, the researchers reported that overall, feasibility and patient satisfaction ratings were very high, noting a majority of the elderly participants reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with the protocol, that they quickly became comfortable using the telehealth equipment and there were few technical problems.
“They felt it improved their care and that they would be willing to use it again,” stated the researchers. The authors also found that telehealth nurses reported that with the majority of their patients, the Depression TeleCare protocol was easy to implement, there were few technical problems, that it improved care and improved depression outcomes. Both patients and nurses believed that confidentiality was maintained.
"At the start of the study, 19 of these patients met full diagnostic criteria for major depression, with a mean depression severity score in the 'markedly severe' range,” commented Sheeran. At follow-up, the average depression severity scores were in the 'mild' range, indicating significant improvement in depression severity through the use of the protocol.
“While these findings need to be replicated in a more rigorously controlled randomized trial, we believe these results offer great encouragement for reaching this population who can experience a better quality of life from this program," concluded Sheeran.
"Using telemedicine in home care to provide disease management for geriatric depression is timely for several reasons,” said the study's lead author, Thomas Sheeran, PhD, clinical psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. “The home care industry is already using telemedicine to provide chronic disease management for many medical illnesses, such as heart disease. However, guideline-based depression care often is not included in these monitoring programs.”
According to the preliminary findings, research suggests that telemedicine can be successfully used to address mental health needs of the elderly in community settings. "Work by the Cornell Homecare Research Partnership and others has shown that community health nurses--who typically are the telehealth disease managers in home care --can identify and successfully provide this service for their elderly home care patients," added Sheeran.
The project began at the Cornell Homecare Research Project at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and was completed at Rhode Island Hospital, in collaboration with the University of Vermont's telemedicine program in Burlington. In addition to the three academic centers, the project partnered with three home health agencies in New York, Vermont and Florida to integrate and pilot evidence-based depression care into existing telehealth programs.
Through the pilot study, the researchers reported that overall, feasibility and patient satisfaction ratings were very high, noting a majority of the elderly participants reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with the protocol, that they quickly became comfortable using the telehealth equipment and there were few technical problems.
“They felt it improved their care and that they would be willing to use it again,” stated the researchers. The authors also found that telehealth nurses reported that with the majority of their patients, the Depression TeleCare protocol was easy to implement, there were few technical problems, that it improved care and improved depression outcomes. Both patients and nurses believed that confidentiality was maintained.
"At the start of the study, 19 of these patients met full diagnostic criteria for major depression, with a mean depression severity score in the 'markedly severe' range,” commented Sheeran. At follow-up, the average depression severity scores were in the 'mild' range, indicating significant improvement in depression severity through the use of the protocol.
“While these findings need to be replicated in a more rigorously controlled randomized trial, we believe these results offer great encouragement for reaching this population who can experience a better quality of life from this program," concluded Sheeran.