"Why is psychology having such problems organizing its findings and affording us useful knowledge in the 21st Century?"

Excellent question, Gregg! 

In the mid-'80s, I envisioned and began building a computerized system able to synthesize diagnostic and treatment-related concepts and research data from multiple therapeutic orientations--including cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and mindfulness-based therapies--and associating them with relevant biomedical research regarding the influence of biological/neurological/medical factors on people's cognitions, affect, and behaviors.

My goal has been to develop assessment tools that deliver sound, useful, cross-disciplinary knowledge that provides clinical decision support for practitioners together with self-insights and guidance for their clients driven by measurement-based care and research. Doing this requires ongoing practitioner-researcher collaboration focused on the production and dissemination of empirical interdisciplinary knowledge. This knowledge would emerge from the analysis of outcomes data that identify processes and methods for continuously improving the quality and value of psychotherapy.

We have accomplished building functional prototypes and field-tested with successful results over 30 years in several settings and with diverse populations. The tools are agnostic to (compatible with) all psychotherapeutic and counseling models, methods, and processes, as well as able to accommodate any data formats, vocabulary standards, and reporting requirements. 

In addition, they are designed to readily evolve and extend their data models, analytic algorithms, presentation templates, and workflow processes through ongoing user feedback and rigorous outcomes research findings. Furthermore, we are building significant AI capabilities.

However, we have been bootstrapping operations for the past 20 years since our efforts to obtain government grant funding to study the capabilities of our novel tools through pilot studies have repeatedly failed. Investors are unimpressed by our continued focus on research and development, which has not led to revenue growth. Established practitioners to whom we've reached out are set in their ways and reluctant to adopt new measurement-based approaches to care delivery.

So, there is a potential practical solution to psychology's problem whereby multidisciplinary research findings would offer helpful knowledge to all stakeholders in the 21st Century. 

I am willing to provide details and answer questions if anyone here is interested.

Steve Beller

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