3-C INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT INC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: 104

Description

There has been substantial progress in developing evidence based prevention programs EBPPs for preventing risky behaviors and promoting positive outcomes for youth Unfortunately their adoption quality implementation long term sustainability and scalability in real world service settings continues to lag far behind resulting in an inability to achieve the intended broad scale public impact This SBIR Fast Track project will address a key implementation barrier to broad scale adoption and sustained use of EBPPs the need for ongoing tracking and documentation of how process data and to what extent outcomes data an EBPP results in intended youth outcomes under real world conditions Building on the existing collaboration between C Institute and Penn State University Prevention Research Centerandapos s EPISCenter we will develop Impact an easy to use cost and time efficient technology platform to gather relevant process and outcome data and produce meaningful real time reports at provider service setting and state wide levels The proposed project will accomplish five specific aims Phase I Create a fully functional prototype based on feedback gathered from providers and administrators during prior research by C and EPISCenter Previously developed wireframes will be made fully functional and a complete system blueprint will be developed for five of EPISCenterandapos s supported EBPPs Conduct a feasibility test with providers and agency state administrators currently implementing one or more EBPPs supported by EPISCenter Phase II Develop the full product with stakeholders including all proposed Impact functionality for five EPISCenter supported EBPPs through an iterative development testing revision process to ensure the software achieves optimal usability for intended end users Conduct a field study with EBPP providers to assess the feasibility usability and value of process and outcomes tracking Providers will be assigned to one of two conditions a using EPISCenterandapos s current methods Excel spreadsheet andamp asynchronous reporting and then b using Impact We expect Impact will result in significant improvements in all areas Prepare Impact for commercialization by conducting focus groups with EBPP providers and administrators to review pilot test results and gather stakeholder feedback to finalize the complete product Preparation for Phase III commercial launch will also include development of all needed demos training materials and resources for end users and integration of e commerce functions into the website Impactandapos s technology infrastructure will be able to accommodate a wide array of EBPPs providing a much needed cost effective mechanism to support broad scale dissemination and use in service settings In addition administrators will be able to track implementation thus enhancing accountability and providing on going quality assurance while also providing data analytics to quickly and effectively monitor impact and cost effectiveness thereby increasing the likelihood a programandapos s core features are adhered to over time and maximizing treatment benefits for youth Estimated national expenditures for treatment of mental health and substance abuse disorders in alone were $ billion Over six million young people receive treatment for mental emotional or behavioral problems each year however only of youth between ages who need mental health services receive those services Without preventive efforts behavioral health problems will have long term effects on life course outcomes and public expenditures for housing education employment disability income support criminal justice and other social welfare services As much as $ trillion could be saved each year simply by investing in prevention efforts Wide scale implementation of evidence based prevention is critical to reining in the escalating costs of healthcare Scaling proven prevention approaches can improve health and well being reduce the economic burden of preventable disease and promote health equity The proposed Impact software package will provide an easy to use cost and time efficient technology platform capable of supporting a wide array of EBPPs by feasibly gathering relevant process and outcome data producing real time analytics and meaningful reports at provider service setting and state wide levels and linking data analytics to continuous quality improvement CQI feedback for providers