# Bringing Health Home: Evaluation of a Residential-based Telehealth Care Coordination Intervention

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2021 · $768,213

## Abstract

Individuals suffering from Serious Mental Illnesses (SMI) are at risk for serious adverse health and
social outcomes compared to the general population due to a high prevalence of chronic physical
health disorders such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and Type II Diabetes, along with
consequences of mental distress such as suicide, substance abuse, and acute stress. Comorbidity of
medical and mental health issues in this population often lead to higher medical costs and adverse
health outcomes. While pharmacological treatments exist for these conditions, they have limited
effectiveness in SMI populations because: (1) up to 60% of individuals with SMI do not take their
psychiatric or somatic medications as prescribed, (2) individuals with SMI have poorer clinical
outcomes and experience high rates of hospitalizations, and (3) individuals with SMI experience
worse care. Challenges in the management of these complex chronic health and mental health
conditions have led to the development of intensive community-based service delivery programs.
However, as currently structured these intensive in-person interventions have only had limited impact
optimizing service delivery, and consequently on adherence to treatment and health outcomes. While
in-person clinical contact in select situations is important, telehealth may serve as an effective and
nimble intervention to help meet the high need for clinical intervention for SMI populations and
particularly those with geographically limited-service access. Although research exists regarding the
efficacy of telehealth with SMI populations, most of the existing interventions with this population have
been designed for institutional settings, not community settings, because of barriers to adoption of
telehealth such as limited access to digital technology, technical support difficulties and cost of
necessary technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for developing effective
telemedicine and telemonitoring technologies to serve the unique needs of this vulnerable population
in community settings. This project builds on a successful Phase I SBIR project and ongoing Phase II
clinical trial of the Medherent medication management platform. This study will test an expanded
set of telehealth care-coordination services that can be used to address the broad health needs of
individuals diagnosed with SMI living in community settings and supported by community mental
health agencies. We will recruit 300 individuals, including 200 individuals currently using the device
and 100 new users of the device. The study will test the existing Medherent platform and a set of
extended services. Our key outcomes include acute service use, receipt of preventive and other
health screenings, health outcomes and costs of services. The study will use a Stepped Wedge
Design approach with a matched comparison group to identify potential benefits of the intervention.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10362274
- **Project number:** 1R01MH128781-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** George Jay Unick
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $768,213
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-14 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10362274

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10362274, Bringing Health Home: Evaluation of a Residential-based Telehealth Care Coordination Intervention (1R01MH128781-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10362274. Licensed CC0.

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