Development Objectives

Polaris-MH is designed for multiple administrations during treatment. The design criteria for Polaris-MH reflect the needs of the various stakeholders: patients, clinicians, clinical managers/administrators, case managers/utilization reviewers and payers.

Criteria include:

1) Patient items require 6th grade reading level
2) Clinically actionable, real-time patient reports printed on site
3) Negligible staff burden
4) Low respondent (i.e., patient) burden
5) Availability of a short form to further reduce respondent burden
6) Ease of integration into routine clinical practice
7) Psychometrically strong scales
8) Full automation of Polaris-MH administration, scheduling, scoring, reporting
9) Privacy-protected data base management
10) Detection of inauthentic responding (data quality indicators)
11) Presentation of both patient and clinician perspectives