The new tool strengthens clinicians’ ability to screen for and treat patients with eating disorders

San Francisco — The American Psychiatric Association (APA), together with AvoMD, a software company that translates clinical evidence into the workflow, have developed an interactive screening and assessment tool for eating disorders based on the APA’s new Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Eating Disorders.

The interactive tool, available for free in the electronic health record (EHR), on the APA website, and on the AvoMD mobile app, guides clinicians through the screening, assessing, diagnosing and treatment planning of patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and other eating disorders.

“People with eating disorders have a high rate of mortality and are growing in prevalence among young adults and adolescents,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A. “It is vital that we equip our clinicians, especially primary care clinicians, with the latest evidence from the APA to empower their decision-making and improve care for their patients.”

Translating clinical expertise into the workflow

The clinical decision support tool, developed by the APA’s Guideline Writing Group in collaboration with AvoMD, is intended for use by pediatricians, family physicians, other primary care and mental health clinicians, including psychiatrists and therapists, as they treat patients with potential eating disorders.

Accessible on desktop devices with EHR integrations available and on a mobile app, the tool includes comprehensive evaluation and treatment management strategies. It incorporates guidance on screening tools, levels of care, nutrition, exercise, psychotherapy, and more. Additionally, the tool provides a summary of responses that can be leveraged for easy documentation.

Primary care treatment of eating disorders is essential

Because primary care professionals are likely to be the first clinicians who encounter patients with eating disorders, it is important for them to be able to effectively and efficiently diagnose these patients and make appropriate referrals. Early diagnosis and treatment are associated with a higher rate of recovery, and extended illness is associated with potentially devastating consequences.

Joongheum Park, M.D., Head of Product and Engineering at AvoMD, said, “As an internal medicine physician myself, I see a wide variety of patients and clinical issues. Easy access to the expertise in my and my peers’ workflow is essential to ensuring high-quality care, and partnering with the leading authority on eating disorders to provide this tool will improve clinician efficiency and most importantly, patient outcomes.”

• Access the eating disorders toolkit online.
• You can download the mobile app.
• For information on customizing the tool and EHR integration, please contact [email protected].

AvoMD

AvoMD is a software platform that translates clinical evidence - guidelines, pathways, and algorithms - into the workflow, available in the EHR or as a standalone web/mobile application. AvoMD automates the ordering and documentation processes in addition to providing clinical guidelines in real-time, point-of-care optimized formats. Randomized control trials and implementations demonstrate that AvoMD saves clinicians over 50% of their time in clinical decision-making at the bedside while improving outcomes and reducing costs. Learn more at avomd.io or email [email protected].

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 38,000 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and research of mental illnesses. APA’s vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information, please visit www.psychiatry.org.