Shifting From Best Practice to Standard Practice: Implementing Measurement-Based Care in Health Systems

There is a large unmet need for mental healthcare in the United States, where depression is one of the most common psychiatric illnesses. Measurement-based care (MBC) is a strategy that can be implemented in primary care settings to improve patient outcomes over care as usual, and MBC can be applied toward the detection and tracking of depression symptoms. The two components of MBC are 1) the repeated, systematic measurement of symptoms for screening and monitoring and 2) using those measurements to guide treatment. This paper provides an overview of MBC and details the benefits and barriers to implementation in the context of depression treatment. Making MBC standard practice can lead to earlier detection and intervention, increase access to care, and help decrease high rates of untreated depression.