This lecture was supported by Grant Number 6H79FG000999-01M001 from SAMHSA. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of SAMHSA.

About the speakers

Nicole M. Benson, MD, MBI, is a child and adult psychiatrist and mental health services researcher. After completing a clinical informatics fellowship, she was the Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at McLean Hospital and the Medical Director for Digital for Behavioral and Mental Health at Mass General Brigham until October 2024. She is now a Medical Director at Headway. She is interested in the use of technology in psychiatric care. Her research involves integrating insurance claims datasets with electronic health records to study the way children and young adults access and receive mental health care.

Alisa B. Busch, MD, MS, is the Mass General Brigham assistant chief medical information officer (CMIO) for McLean Hospital and system Behavioral and Mental Health, and a Professor of Psychiatry and Health Care Policy at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is also a mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) policy and services researcher.  Her CMIO and research focus is in examining MH/SUD treatment quality in healthcare systems using administrative and EHR data. She has served on national technical expert panels for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Institute of Medicine related to MH/SUD services, treatment quality, and development of quality measures.

David Kroll, MD, is the Associate Vice Chair for Quality and Safety in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Director of Ambulatory Services for Mass General Brigham Behavioral and Mental Health. He is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Lori Allinder, MBA, LMHC, is the Program Manager of Behavioral & Mental Health Central Access & Inpatient Initiatives within Mass General Brigham. In this position, Lori served in a key role in the design and systemwide implementation of behavioral health central access launched in 2022. Prior to this, she worked in several acute care behavioral health settings across Mass General Brigham, notably helping to design and oversee the admissions workflow for the Epstein Center for Behavioral Health, a 120-bed expanded psychiatry service at Salem Hospital which opened in 2019. Her extensive background working as a licensed mental health counselor in community, emergency department, and inpatient behavioral health settings coupled with her experience in leadership and administration in non-profit settings, have allowed her to develop a keen understanding of both patient and provider needs which she is able to use to guide her daily work. Her professional experience, alongside her relational approach to stakeholder engagement has allowed her to lead and support several successful change management and high-profile integration initiatives. Her skills and experience have helped shape the best-practice of this new and innovative system to improve access to behavioral health services across Mass General Brigham.

Disclosure Statements

Sheppard Pratt holds the standard that its continuing medical education programs should be free of commercial bias and conflict of interest. In accord with Sheppard Pratt's Disclosure Policy, as well as standards of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Medical Association (AMA), all planners, reviewers, speakers and persons in control of content have been asked to disclose any relationship he /she has with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months. All planners, reviewers and speakers have also been asked to disclose any payments accepted for this lecture from any entity besides Sheppard Pratt, and if there will be discussion of any products, services, or off-label uses of product(s) during this presentation.

Nicole M. Benson, MD, MBI, reports that she is an equity holder in Cerevel Therapeutics, an Advisor for Epic Systems, and has received funding as a researcher from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. She will be discussing the use of iCBT tools and electronic health record systems in this presentation. All relationships have been mitigated through review.

Alisa B. Busch, MD, MS, reports being as a consultants to RTI International and has received grants as a researcher from the NIH and CRICO Risk Management Foundation. She will not discuss any products, services, or off-label uses in this presentation. All relationships have been mitigated through review.

David Kroll, MD, & Lori Allinder, MBA, LMHC, report that they have no relationships with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months. They will not discuss any products, services, or off-label uses in this presentation. All relationships have been mitigated through review.

Event Planners/Reviewers Disclosures: The following event planners and/or reviewers are reported as having no financial interest, arrangement or affiliation with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months: Todd Peters, MD, Elizabeth Ryznar, MD, MSc, Louis Marino, MD, Devi Bhuyan, PsyD, Faith Dickerson, PhD, Carrie Etheridge, LCSW-C, Tom Flis, LCPC, Alfredo Sagisi, DNP, MS, RN, FACHE, Stephanie M. Robinson, MSN, RN, PMH-BC, NPD-BC, NE-BC, Lisa E. Seldon, DNP, MSA, RN, NEA-BC, Lisa Illum, MLIS, MEd, and Jennifer Tornabene.