Potential benefits of health information technology for integrating physical and behavioral health care: perinatal depression as a case-in-point

Abstract

Depression among pregnant and postpartum women (i.e., perinatal depression) is the number one complication of childbirth. The Allegheny County Maternal Depression Initiative aimed to bridge gaps between physical and behavioral health care and improve the capacity of local systems of care for identifying and treating women at high risk for perinatal depression. To achieve these goals, the collaborative adopted a community-based model of systems change focused on women enrolled in the local Medicaid managed care system. Although the systems change protocol included a number of strategies for enhancing communication at all levels of care, variations in health information technology (HIT) capacities and/or capabilities across initiative partners frequently prevented optimal implementation of these strategies. Here, we present an overview of the results of the initiative, share insights from the collaborative regarding how HIT could have improved those results, and offer recommendations related to ways to effectively leverage HIT to integrate physical and behavioral health care.