InSight Launches Inpathy, a Platform for Connecting with Behavioral Health Providers Online
Marlton, New Jersey (PRWEB) January 23, 2014 -- InSight, the leading national telepsychiatry provider company, is launching Inpathy, an online behavioral health platform. Inpathy gives users an easy and affordable medium to connect with providers through a secure, HIPAA-compliant tool. To use Inpathy, users need only a computer with a web camera, a microphone and a strong internet connection.
“Inpathy is a game changer for behavioral health care accessibility,” says InSight CEO Les Paschall, “InSight has always been dedicated to increasing access to quality care through innovative means, and with Inpathy we have now reduced yet another barrier to getting behavioral health care to people who need it most.”
To date, InSight has focused its services on providing care to facilities like community mental health centers, FQHCs and hospitals using professional-grade videoconferencing equipment. InSight employs a large team of behavioral health providers and utilizes technology to connect those providers with underserved sites throughout the country.
“With a national shortage of behavioral health providers, particularly prescribers, it is important to leverage the providers who are out there so that needs in undeserved areas can be met,” says InSight Executive Director Geoffrey Boyce.
One study found that 96% of counties in the US have unmet shortage of psychiatric prescribers. [1]
With Inpathy, users will have an easy way to connect with a remote providers including specialists like child and adolescent psychiatrists, substance abuse specialists, behaviorists, geriatric psychiatrists and experts in psychosomatic medicine.
“InSight is committed to not only creating a platform for connecting behavioral health providers with consumers online, but for doing it appropriately,” explains Boyce. “There are a number of technology options, but few appropriately consider significant regulatory hurdles to providing care through technology like licensure, protected health information, HIPAA, insurance, ethics and scope of practice. These can all be obstacles, but InSight has 15 years of telepsychiatry experience and has designed Inpathy to account for these challenges.”
The InSight team has been practicing telepsychiatry in a variety of settings across the country since 1999. The company has been active advocates and clinical thought-leaders for the development and adoption of telepsychiatry best practices for new programs.
Studies have shown that telebehavioral health can be as or more effective than in-person care, but, as Boyce articulates, there are factors involved to make sure the practice is done appropriately.
“Telebehavioral health must be conducted carefully within a secure platform and with providers who are well versed and well supported around the nuances of this medium of delivering care,” says Boyce. “That is why we have created in Inpathy, and we are extremely excited about the possibilities.”
Inpathy will initially be made available to sites and organizations looking to expand the scope and efficacy of their behavioral health services using telemedicine. With Inpathy, these sites will be able to do so without purchasing costly videoconferencing equipment.
“Purchasing and maintaining televideo equipment has been an obstacle stopping some facilities from adopting telemedicine in the past,” explains Paschall. “With Inpathy, sites, providers and individual consumers will have access to care using typical devices.”
The first phase of Inpathy will connect users with InSight’s growing network of providers. InSight employs a large staff of telebehavioral health providers including psychiatrists, APNs, psychologists and LCSWs. These providers conduct assessments, therapy, medication management, consultations and engage in treatment team meetings remotely to collaborate with onsite staff.
“Inpathy gives sites greater access to providers and a better tool kit for engaging consumers,” explains Boyce, “Sites can use Inpathy to increase their provider capacity by connecting with InSight providers or by offering services from their existing staff in new locations, including the consumer’s home.”
Features of Inpathy include videoconferencing, a scheduling function, practice management tools, consumer and provider resource centers, optional clinical documentation system and optional e-prescribing.
Future phases of Inpathy are expected to allow for consumers to search for providers that meet their needs in an online marketplace while allowing providers the opportunity to develop an online virtual practice via Inpathy.
Inpathy has been developed through a partnership with WeCounsel, an online telemedicine platform. InSight and WeCounsel are committed to promoting access to high quality behavioral health care through Inpathy.
“WeCounsel is an entrepreneurial team with a vision for improving behavioral health care that is in near perfect alignment with our vision to increase access to care,” says Boyce, “We look forward to what the future developments of Inpathy will mean for consumer-focused wellness.”
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[1] Konrad, T. Ph.D., Ellis, A., M.S.W., Thomas, K., M.P.H., Ph.D., Holzer, C., Ph.D., Morrissey, J. Ph.D. (2009, Oct). County Level Estimates of Need for Mental Health Professionals in the US. Psychiatric Services, 60(10):1307-1314.
Olivia Boyce, InSight Telepsychiatry, http://www.insighttelepsychiatry.com, +1 7707134161, [email protected]
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