Improving physician efficiency and patient care : assessing an electronic mood disorder questionnaire [abstract]

Abstract

Bipolar disorder is a serious psychiatric illness characterized by periods of both depression and mania. Diagnosis of bipolar disorder is often missed in primary care settings as many patients are incorrectly diagnosed with unipolar depression. The consequences associated with misdiagnosing and mistreating bipolar disorder can be severe. Studies have indicated that it often takes as many as three different physicians up to ten years from initial presentation for a correct bipolar diagnosis to be made. In 2000, a bipolar disorder screening tool called the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) was introduced to help more efficiently diagnosis the disorder. Over the past year we have worked to create an electronic version of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire that can be accessed through the electronic medical record. It is now possible for physicians to guide a patient through the 13-question screening tool and integrate the results directly into a PowerNote, online electronic documentation, through the institution's new AutoText function. Physicians were educated about the screening tool itself and how to access the MDQ on the electronic medical record through in-person training sessions as well as instructional email and web-based video. Incidence of bipolar diagnosis in the University Health Care System was ascertained prior to and post introduction of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire.