Using technology to improve patient assessment and outcome evaluation

Until the recent widespread availability of modern communication technology, traditional paper mood monitoring data was plagued with limited compliance (approximately 11%) and inaccuracy. This restricted clinicians' capacity to meaningfully assess patient progress or evaluate their treatments by the preferred practice-based method: the single-case experimental design. A fundamental element of single-case methodology is the collection of repeated measures of behaviour or mood (typically daily or on several occasions per week) from which patterns and stability can be analysed using visual inspection. This data must also be collected in at least three phases: (i) baseline or pre-treatment; (ii) treatment; and (iii) post treatment or follow up - with a minimum of 5 data points per phase. Effective treatment is demonstrated when there is stability of symptoms at baseline (ie minimal slope), followed by a reduction in symptom severity during treatment (ie level), and the maintenance of gains at follow up.