Mindoula Hires Collaborative Care Expert as Chief Medical Officer
Published in Press Releases, September 20, 2016
Carol L. Alter, MD to Lead Collaborative Care Efforts for Leading Behavioral Healthcare Company
Sept. 20, 2016 – SILVER SPRING, Md. –Mindoula Health, a technology-enabled case management company at the forefront of the behavioral healthcare transformation, today announced that Carol L. Alter, MD, is joining the Mindoula senior leadership team as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Alter is one of the nation’s leading mental health policy and psychosomatic medicine psychiatrists, and will lead Mindoula’s Collaborative Care initiative and related efforts to deliver innovative commercial solutions for solving the problems of America’s broken behavioral healthcare system.
Dr. Alter has over twenty-five years of experience in diverse settings including clinical practice, research, administration, healthcare delivery, and the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on psychiatric care of patients with medical illness. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, monographs, and book chapters related to psychosomatic medicine and access to psychiatric care. As Director of Psychosomatic Medicine, Policy and Community Outreach and Associate Professor in the Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry, she led a model Collaborative Care program in the Montgomery Cares safety-net clinics, which is now available to over 20,000 Montgomery Cares patients. She also authored a report, funded by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which examined the financial issues related to implementation of Collaborative Care for the District of Columbia, served as Medical Director for Policy & Advocacy at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and founded a policy-action organization, Treatment Effectiveness Now, focused on issues of access to care for patients with co-occurring mental and physical disorders.
Dr. Alter has been a leader in numerous national organizations including the American Psychiatric Association, the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society. She played a key role in the development and implementation of the 2007 Institute of Medicine report, Cancer Care for the Whole Patient, and was a founder of the Alliance for Quality Psychosocial Cancer Care, a consortium of over 30 professional and patient advocacy organizations focusing on implementation of the report.
“We are honored that one of the nation’s thought leaders behind the development, testing, and implementation of Collaborative Care, and a trusted advisor to Mindoula for more than three years, will be joining our team as Chief Medical Officer, and will be leading our Collaborative Care efforts, and helping us work with primary care practices, hospital and health systems, and payers to improve behavioral healthcare in America,” said Steve Sidel, Founder & CEO of Mindoula. “We have been pilot testing our virtual Collaborative Care program for more than a year, with promising success in helping primary care physicians effectively treat behavioral health conditions in the primary care setting. We’re thrilled to have a top clinical and business leader like Dr. Alter lead this important initiative, and help us significantly expand access to behavioral health treatment and 24/7 virtual support to individuals needing help in overcoming their behavioral health challenges.”
“Mindoula is a first-mover in the virtual delivery of Collaborative Care, at a time when our nation is recognizing the power of this evidence-based intervention to help primary care physicians provide patients with the behavioral healthcare they need in the primary care setting,” said Dr. Carol Alter. “I couldn’t be happier that Mindoula has tapped me to lead its Collaborative Care efforts. We’re at an exciting moment in behavioral healthcare, in which we can begin to solve the very significant problems of lack of access, poor quality care, and ineffective coordination between the medical and behavioral systems for individuals with behavioral health conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders. Mindoula’s market-tested virtual Collaborative Care program addresses the enormous need for effective, scalable solutions to the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders that are responsible for nearly twenty-five percent of all worldwide disability and substantial increases in overall healthcare costs.”
Dr. Alter received her medical degree from George Washington University in 1985 and did her psychiatric training at Mayo Clinic, Cornell University Medical College, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She has been an Advisor to Mindoula since its founding in July of 2013. Currently Senior Director, Medical Policy and Quality at AstraZeneca, Dr. Alter will be leaving AstraZeneca to join Mindoula as CMO.
About Mindoula
Mindoula Health is a technology-enabled case management company headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, that provides 24/7 virtual and in-person support to individuals and families facing behavioral health challenges. Its proprietary telehealth platform which includes a HIPAA compliant mobile engagement app, proprietary psychometrics, predictive analytics, and collaborative care software, enables its team of case managers and peer support specialists to deliver market leading behavioral health outcome improvements and reduce healthcare costs. A leader in the areas of case management, collaborative care, and behavioral health population management, Mindoula is at the forefront of the transformation of behavioral healthcare.
Contact
Kristi Stovall, Marketing & Public Relations
kristi.stovall@mindoula.com
312.498.4078