Information technology and electronic health record to improve behavioral health services

Abstract We continue to increase our exchange of information through health technologies, used to access, disseminate, and analyze information. Clinical informatics is a rapidly expanding area and facilitates patient-centered care as defined by quality, affordability, and timely health care. This chapter covers developments in information systems, electronic health records, electronic communications with patients and staff (e.g., alerts, texts), behavioral health indicators and related digital advances to improve practice and research. The reader can learn how to set goals toward quality outcomes and be efficient while remaining patient-centered using technology, and adapt to technological components and processes used by systems. By grasping how systems are designed and tailored to collect data, clinicians can use technology to inform decisions and facilitate outcomes. Setting priorities involves input from all care participants, as well as technological competencies for the clinician and institutional/organizational. Patient, clinician, and institutional competencies for skills, attitudes, and behaviors can align clinical care, training, and research missions and stimulate quality improvement.