University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht has developed a “psychiatry portal” that patients – for example, those suffering from depression – can use to get some of their treatment online. Individual patients and psychiatrists can then decide when they will contact each other and where they will be when they do this.
Using this portal to communicate can offer a number of advantages to both patients and treatment professionals. Both parties are able to work on the treatment at a time and place convenient to them. Patients are no longer dependent on the availability of treatment professionals, but can instead submit their non-urgent questions 24 hours a day (for example, about prescription refills). This can all help patients take charge of the course of their illness. Treatment professionals have more flexibility with regard to patient care, because they are able to decide on their own when to answer questions or deal with other things (within a specified period of time, of course).
Psychiatry portal offers many opportunities
Psychiatrists and patients can use the psychiatry portal to exchange “e-consultation” messages. Patients can also see results from laboratory tests, prescribed medication, treatment recommendations, and appointments, and also keep a digital diary if their doctor asks them to. Questionnaires can be filled out at the psychiatrist’s request as well. For both treatment professionals and patients, these functions provide insight on the course of the illness and the medication plan’s role in this. The portal is located in a secure internet environment.