Leveraging Technology to Address the Quality Chasm in Children’s Evidence-Based Psychotherapy

The quality of psychosocial treatment delivery is highly variable in community practice settings, even among well-trained providers. This column discusses the potential to improve patient outcomes by targeting two important quality-of-care indicators through technology: provider fidelity and children’s engagement. A case example describes one provider’s use of numerous tablet-based activities in the context of evidence-based psychotherapy. Providers and families responded favorably to this approach in a recent feasibility study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Further research is needed to determine whether this approach may improve outcomes, quality of care, provider fidelity, and patient engagement in community mental health service settings.