Utility of MyHEARTSMAP in Youth Presenting to the Emergency Room with Mental Health Concerns.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the utility of a digital psychological self-assessment tool, MyHEARTSMAP, in youth presenting to the pediatric emergency department (ED) with a mental health concern.

STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a prospective cohort study in two tertiary care pediatric EDs from December 2017-October 2019. Youth 10-17 years old triaged for a mental health concern were screened and enrolled to complete MyHEARTSMAP on a mobile device. A clinician blinded to the MyHEARTSMAP assessment conducted their own assessment which was used as the reference standard. Utility was quantified as the sensitivity and specificity of MyHEARTSMAP in detecting psychiatric, social, youth health, and functional concerns.

RESULTS: Among 379 eligible youth, 351 were approached and 233 (66.4%) families were enrolled. Sensitivity for youth MyHEARTSMAP self-assessments ranged from 87.4% in the youth health domain to 99.5% in the psychiatric domain for identifying any concern, and 33.3% in the social domain to 74.6% in the psychiatric domain for severe concerns. Specificity ranged from 66.7% in the psychiatric domain to 98.2% in the youth health domain for no or only mild concerns.

CONCLUSION: Youth and guardian MyHEARTSMAP assessments are sensitive for detecting psychosocial concerns requiring follow-up beyond pediatric ED evaluation. Specificity for no or only mild concerns was high in the non-psychiatric domains.