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Business North - The Daily Briefing - Business Newspaper Online
Proposed new approach to depression care in Minnesota receives $3 million research grant HealthPartners Research Foundation to study initiative led by ICSI
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10/26/2007 |
BLOOMINGTON – A groundbreaking initiative to change the way Minnesotans receive treatment for depression has caught the attention of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH has awarded HealthPartners Research Foundation a $3 million grant to study the initiative, which is being led by Minnesota’s Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI).
Called DIAMOND (for Depression Improvement Across Minnesota, Offering a New Direction), the initiative will change the way depression care is delivered and paid for.
Components of the new program, all of which will be evaluated in the study, include use of a standard assessment tool to improve the diagnosis and management of depression, the addition of a care manager to the patient’s treatment team for more personalized care, and a tracking system to monitor follow-up care and treatment effectiveness. The DIAMOND depression care model will be implemented with 16 primary care medical clinics across the state beginning in the spring of 2008.
“This study will evaluate the impact of a new delivery model supported by new reimbursement approaches,” says Leif Solberg, MD, a researcher with HealthPartners Research Foundation and an alternate on the ICSI board.
ICSI is working with Minnesota’s primary care medical groups and health plans to design new depression care techniques and reimbursement models to improve depression care. “The willingness of the medical groups and health plans to make dramatic changes in order to achieve better results for patients with depression is very exciting, and is a huge step forward in delivering more value to both patients and health care purchasers,” says ICSI President Sanne Magnan, MD, PhD.
The study will run for five years with preliminary results assessed midway through the study. DIAMOND is expected to serve as a national model for major improvements in depression care.
About ICSI
Located in Bloomington, Minn., ICSI (www.icsi.org) is an independent, nonprofit collaboration of medical groups and hospitals that provide health care services to people who live and work in Minnesota and in surrounding states. The combined medical groups and hospital systems represent more than 9,600 physicians.
ICSI was founded by HealthPartners Medical Group, Mayo Clinic and Park Nicollet Health Services in 1993. Today, ICSI has 61 members and is sponsored by six Minnesota health plans — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica, Metropolitan Health Plan, PreferredOne and UCare Minnesota. Its mission is to champion the cause of health care quality and to accelerate improvement in the value of the health care delivered by the participating organizations to the populations they serve.
About HealthPartners Research Foundation
HealthPartners family of care includes HealthPartners Research Foundation (www.hprf.org). Conducting about 150 research projects each year, the Foundation is dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge through research to improve the health of our members and the community. Founded in 1957, HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) serves more than one million medical and dental health plan members nationwide and is the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the nation, providing care, coverage, research and education to improve the health of members, patients and the community.
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