Education and Training

Background and Mission - Using Technology in Clinical Care

The Education and Training Program (E&T) strives to bring about a change in patient health by training military health care providers to use current best practices for integrating mobile health technologies into clinical care. Our E&T training programs emphasize the universal access to mobile health tools, such as apps and the use of technology to augment the care providers offer their patients. Using evidence-based behavioral health research, E&T provides high-quality education, training and resources to health care providers, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses across the military health system.

Over the past decade there has been a paradigm shift involving the integration of behavioral health technology tools, such as mobile applications and websites, into clinical care. These technological advances have created fundamental changes to practitioner workflow, how providers disseminate education to patients, how patients relay self-assessment data to providers, how patients and providers interact between visits, and how patients engage in their care. E&T developed the first standardized, competency-based, comprehensive curriculum to train providers on the proper integration of behavioral health technology tools into clinical care.

Psychologists are required by ethical principles to establish requisite clinical competencies before implementing new interventions with patients; the E&T workshops, webinars and resources se provides the means to acquire such competencies.

Benefits of Using Technologies in Clinical Care

These technology-based tools are not intended to replace clinical care, but to augment it. Technology tools provide clinicians an opportunity to elevate their care. Benefits of using technologies in clinical care include:

  • Creating efficiencies in workflow and increasing patient engagement and compliance with care.
  • Maximizing face-to-face patient interaction.
  • Maximizing engagement between sessions to make meaningful lasting changes in the lives of patients.
  • Increasing patient outcome expectations and perceived self-efficacy.
  • Acquiring new psychological health skills becomes easier and faster when paired with an existing high frequency behavior.

Products and Services

Translating knowledge regarding innovation technology solutions into actual clinical practice is accomplished using multiple training methods:

Face-to-face workshops – E&T provides one-day and two-day face-to-face workshops at military treatment facilities throughout the U.S. to train military providers on the ethical, safe and practical use of DoD and VA smartphone mobile applications and other technologies in clinical care. These workshops are highly interactive and take a hands-on, practical approach to learning. Attendees leave feeling competent to use such tools in their clinical practice. These workshops provide continuing education credits for psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers and nurses. Visit our workshops page for information on our current workshop series or to request a workshop at your facility.

Webinars - Webinars provide an opportunity to reach even more military providers and support staff to learn about using technology in clinical care. Webinars provide a valuable, efficient and cost-effective training method. Prior webinars provided are a part of the DCoE webinar series that can be accessed through the DCoE Webinar Archive.

Community of Practice Forum - The objective of the Behavioral Health Technology Community of Practice is to provide a forum for health care providers currently using or interested in learning about using technological tools as part of patient care and to promote discussion about health care practice using websites, mobile apps, and other technology-based methods. To join these meetings please send a request through our contact us page.

LinkedIn Group - LinkedIn groups provide a convenient method for military providers to stay connected with the teams at the National Center for Telehealth & Technology. These LinkedIn groups provide a network of mental health professionals who provide services to active-duty and reserve members of the armed forces, veterans, and military families and are interested in best practices for employing technology-based resources in their clinical practice. The goal for the groups is to provide a forum for discussion of experiences and lessons learned in the delivery of care using psychological health technology tools and resources.

Two LinkedIn groups are available. These groups are private and not searchable. Use the links below to access them after you sign in to LinkedIn:

Web-Based Provider Education Portal - T2’s Provider Portal is a repository of information on mobile applications, clinical practice guidelines, client handouts, continuing education opportunities, assessments, briefings, and many other resources to support military providers. Get these resources now from our Provider Portal for Clinicians