Procedures for use of Polaris-CV

Polaris-CV is designed for easy integration into office procedures. It will require minimal time from patients and administrative staff, no disruption of the clinical process, and no additional effort by the physician.

Patients entering cardiac treatment will complete the screening survey in the doctor’s office using a PC or a hand held computer. The screening portion of Polaris-CV will require less than one minute. Those screening positive for depression will be presented with additional questions assessing risk factors and depression severity (requiring an additional 6 minutes). Immediately upon completion of the survey a report will be printed for physician review, indicating the severity of the depression, whether treatment should be considered, and the predicted course associated with “no treatment” and various treatment options (in order to select the best treatment for each patient). The cardiologist may wish to “watch and wait”, or prescribe medication in some circumstances. In others there will be referral to a mental health professional for further evaluation and treatment for depression.

Patients being treated for depression can be monitored using Polaris-CV. The monitoring survey will require less than 3 minutes to complete. Treatment progress reports will be immediately available; the report will:

• Show the trend in depression severity from baseline to current.

• Alert the physician to developments (e.g., suicidal ideation, patient experiencing side effects or not taking prescribed medication, deterioration of the patient’s condition) requiring clinical attention).

In summary, Polaris-CV will efficiently screen for depression, help the physician evaluate options regarding treatment or referral, and monitor the patient’s condition and/or response to treatment.

Development Objectives

Polaris-CV was designed to meet the needs of each of the various stakeholders involved in the treatment process: patients, clinicians, clinical managers/administrators, case managers/utilization reviewers, office staff, and payers. These needs are reflected in the system design objectives.

• Reliable assessment of the severity of the patient’s depression and anxiety and the identification of other psychosocial risk factors.

• Analysis and reporting of individual/aggregate patient data to support clinical decision-making

• Clinically actionable, real-time reports printed on site

• Negligible staff and respondent burden

• Availability of an abbreviated version to further reduce respondent burden

• Ease of integration into routine clinical practice

• Full automation of Polaris-CV administration, scheduling, scoring, and reporting

• Privacy-protected data base management

• Detection of inauthentic responding (data quality indicators)