No abstract

Professional practice guidelines (PPGs) are intended to promote a high level of professional practice and serve as an educational resource, providing pragmatic guidance in a clinical area for psychologists. Measurement-based care (MBC) is an evidence-based psychological practice with accumulating empirical support and alignment with patient-centered care. In connection with the American Psychological Association's Advisory Committee for Measurement-based Care and the Mental and Behavioral Health Registry, this article outlines various lines of support for the development and implementation of an MBC PPG. In addition to research evidence, we address the demonstrated need of this guideline across three domains: public benefit, professional guidance, and legal and regulatory issues. Consistent with the aspirational spirit of a PPG, this article proposes a draft PPG statement and highlights how an MBC PPG would improve service delivery, facilitate implementation of an evidence-based practice associated with symptom reduction, improved retention, and greater patient satisfaction, as well as create a framework that will better align changes in reimbursement models with patients' and providers' treatment goals. We also identify key future directions and critical gaps in MBC science and implementation that require attention.This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. James F. Boswell https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6214-0787 Vanderbilt University and Susan Douglas receive compensation related to the Peabody Treatment Progress Battery; and Susan Douglas has a financial relationship with MIRAH, and both are measurement-based care (MBC) tools. The author declares a potential conflict of interest. There is a management plan in place at Vanderbilt University to monitor that this potential conflict does not jeopardize the objectivity of Dr. Douglas' research.James F. Boswell played lead role in conceptualization, project administration, supervision, and writing of review and editing and equal role in resources and writing of original draft. Kimberly A. Hepner played lead role in conceptualization, project administration, and supervision and equal role in resources, writing of original draft, and writing of review and editing. Kathleen Lysell played lead role in conceptualization, project administration, and supervision and equal role in resources, writing of original draft, and writing of review and editing. Nan E. Rothrock played supporting role in conceptualization, writing of original draft, and writing of review and editing. Nick Bott played supporting role in conceptualization, writing of original draft, and writing of review and editing. Amber W. Childs played supporting role in conceptualization, writing of original draft, and writing of review and editing. Susan Douglas played supporting role in conceptualization, writing of original draft, and writing...

The United States health-care system is in the process of rapid change that poses both opportunities and challenges for the discipline of professional psychology. Quality-improvement processes and outcomes measurement are becoming key features of the evolving system. The current status of quality in health care and behavioral health care is reviewed, as is the growing use of patient-reported outcome measures in clinical practice. We articulate a vision in which quality processes and outcomes measurement are integrated into clinical practice within the discipline of professional psychology. Opportunities and challenges associated with that integration are reviewed, and recommendations are made for the American Psychological Association to assume leadership in ensuring that these concepts become central to training and practice in psychology.

A potentially important source of cognitive developmental variance is that associated with basic cognitive-processing efficiency. Discrepant findings from several studies have failed to establish convincingly whether developmental change exists in basic processing efficiency. Employing 2 different experimental tasks, memory and visual scanning, which permit the isolation of a theoretically similar process, that is, search, we examined age effects on the search-processing parameter after analyzing it for convergent and discriminant validity. Each of the 96 subjects at 4 ages (9, 11, 13, and 15 years) completed both experiments. Validity evidence was obtained through a comparison of process and task intercorrelations, which revealed the former to be significantly more related than the latter (p less than .001). Also, significant age effects (p less than .001) were obtained for the search-processing parameter in both tasks, which provides evidence for the development of basic cognitive-processing efficiency.

Measurement-based care has important implications across multiple avenues in mental and behavioral health care, including clinical care, quality improvement, and accountability. Using measurement-based care to demonstrate that quality care is being provided within the context of cost-efficient care could strengthen the position of mental and behavioral health providers as critical members of the health care system. Yet when measurement-based care is used to assess performance of providers, and then that performance influences reimbursement, it must be done with great care and deliberation so as not to result in unintended consequences such as punishing providers. Given psychology’s expertise in measurement, the American Psychological Association (APA) and its members are uniquely suited to be leaders in promoting measurement-based care to assess quality and value. In this policy analysis paper, we examine the importance of measurement-based behavioral and mental health care across a variety of public service populations. We describe the increased federal regulatory focus on promoting quality and cost efficient care, the importance of defining and measuring quality care, and introduce an important resource being developed by APA to promote provider engagement in measurement-based care and effective participation in payment reform efforts in health care. We conclude with specific recommendations for how the field can move forward with using measurement-based care to assess accountability.