Rosecrance’s Dr. Raymond Garcia, medical director at Rosecrance Harrison Campus, was featured in an article on Behavioral Healthcare magazine’s website.
Behavioral health clinicians increasingly are using treatments that combine evidence-based medicine—which incorporates clinical pathways, scientific studies and electronic medical records—with more traditional patient-centered, shared decision-making approaches. But the question that remains is how to balance the two so that protocol is neither a rigid “cookbook” nor dubious “gut instinct.”
Compared to a decade ago, there is more opportunity for incorporating evidence-based medicine because the body of evidence has increased in recent years.
“As the scientific knowledge base in behavioral science establishes firmer ground, there is a wider acceptance among clinicians to use evidence-based practices,” says Raymond Garcia, MD, medical director for Rosecrance’s Harrison campus, in Rockford, Ill. “Using new tools to enhance diagnostic accuracy and determine more specific etiologies for behavioral health conditions, we will be better able to individualize care.”
For example, there are genetic assays that show promise in guiding treatment options based on the individual’s ability to metabolize certain medications. And, he says, clinicians are starting to use the tests to choose specific medications, especially in individuals who have had poor outcomes previously. New technologies can help at the initial diagnosis stage as well.
“Enhanced/functional brain imaging studies can be used in aiding diagnosis, especially as costs come down,” says Garcia.
Click here to continue reading the article on Behavioral Healthcare magazine’s website.