Mood Sciences is seeking funding to develop and validate DSM-IV-based self-report software for diagnOsing and tracking Axis I Major Depressive Episode (MDE). The first computerized instrument to assign a diagnosis and a severity score with a single set of questions, the software has multiple commercial applications as a cost-cutting and quality- improvement instrument in both in- and outpatient settings. Designed to stand alone or as a diagnostic and tracking engine for existing Medical Information Systems, the software will help individual physicians, hospitals, managed care organizations, insurers, and Employee Assistance Programs to provide efficient, quality care. Phase I will involve development and programming of the questions for the MDE module into a prepared interface and testing the validity and reliability of the diagnoses and severity scores the software generates against gold- standard instruments. For diagnosis, the kappa between our software and the SCID must be at least 0.75, and agreement with the SCID not meaningfully less than the IDD. For severity measures, correlation with the clinician-administered HRS-D must be at least 0.8 and not meaningfully less than between the IDD and HRS-D. Retest reliability must be comparable to the published reliabilities of the SCID1 IDD, and clinician-administered HRS-D.
The program will be attractive to managed care organizations as a tool to objectively monitor treatment appropriateness for both in- and outpatient settings. It will track treatment response for private practices and pre-paid insurers, save clinician time in gathering symptom information, serve as a screen for mental illness for Employee Assistance Programs, and be a module to be incorporated into existing Medical Information Systems. We estimate a potential market of $7.5 million for $1000/copy software.
