R. Patel, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL Department of Psychosis StudiesModerator of 1 Session
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the delivery of mental healthcare, while at the same time increasing the global burden of disease. However, the advent of remote technologies to support clinical care and the availability of real-world datasets have enabled a rapid response to improve mental healthcare delivery.In this symposium, leading experts in mental healthcare data science will address the new technologies which have emerged during the pandemic, insights into their immediate impacts, and the opportunity to support better personalisation and access to mental healthcare in the future.Dr Rashmi Patel is an MRC HDR UK Fellow, general psychiatrist and EPA Research Prize winner. He will speak about insights from EHR data during the pandemic and how real-time data visualisation could help to reduce treatment delays in serious mental illness.Dr David Rigby is Chair of the Special Interest Group on Digital Psychiatry at the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists. He will review the impact of digital psychiatry on recruitment and the benefits and challenges of telepsychiatry during the COVID-19 pandemic.Dr Miguel Alvarez-Mon is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Alcalá. He will present, with original research, how social media contents may have contributed to misinformation during the pandemic and how they could impact public mental health.Dr Tanjir Rashid Soron is founder of the Telepsychiatry Research and Innovation Network and will share his experience of leading “Monerdaktar”, the largest online mental health service in Bangladesh, and how it improved access to mental healthcare during COVID-19.
Presenter of 2 Presentations
Live Q&A
S0137 - Remote Mental Healthcare During COVID-19: Insights from Electronic Health Record (EHR) Data
ABSTRACT
Abstract Body
Background:
Remote consultation technology has been rapidly adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some healthcare settings have faced barriers in implementation. We present a study to investigate changes in rates of remote consultation during the pandemic using a large electronic health record (EHR) dataset.
Methods:
The Clinical Record Interactive Search tool (CRIS) was used to examine de-identified EHR data of people receiving mental healthcare in South London, UK. Data from around 37,500 patients were analysed for each week from 7th January 2019 and 20th September 2020 using linear regression and locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) to investigate changes in the number of clinical contacts (in-person, remote or non-attended) with mental healthcare professionals and prescribing of antipsychotics and mood stabilisers. The data are presented in an interactive dashboard: http://rpatel.co.uk/TelepsychiatryDashboard.
Results:
The frequency of in-person contacts was substantially reduced following the onset of the pandemic (β coefficient: -5829.6 contacts, 95% CI -6919.5 to -4739.6, p<0.001), while the frequency of remote contacts increased significantly (β coefficient: 3338.5 contacts, 95% CI 3074.4 to 3602.7, p<0.001). Rates of remote consultation were lower in older adults than in working age adults, children and adolescents. Despite the increase in remote contact, antipsychotic and mood stabiliser prescribing remained at similar levels.
Conclusions:
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a marked increase in remote consultation, particularly among younger patients. However, there was no evidence that this has led to changes in prescribing. Further work is needed to support older patients in accessing remote mental healthcare.