Advancing a Learning Health System for Mood Disorders

Many patients with mood disorders, which include major depression and bipolar disorder, continue to experience symptoms even after receiving treatment. Traditional research methods have helped improve care but often dont reflect the realities of clinical practice, which slows progress in applying research to improve services. This project aims to support St. Josephs Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) in becoming a Learning Health System (LHS)an approach that uses ongoing data collection and analysis to improve care over time. The project will focus on the Mood Disorders Treatment and Research Clinic (MTRC) and has two main goals: first, to create a plan for how LHS can be adopted in the clinic by engaging patients, staff, and leadership, and second, to analyze existing clinical data to understand which patients are most at risk of continuing symptoms after treatment. These insights will help improve care for mood disorder patients and guide future research and service planning. For SJHH and the Research Institute of St. Joes Hamilton (RSJH), this project will demonstrate how data already collected in the electronic medical record can be used to support system-level improvements, providing a model that can be expanded to other clinical programs at SJHH.

Faculty Supervisor:

Benicio Frey

Student:

Partner:

The Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McMaster University

Program: