SUMMARY
The research interests of Bruce Sutor, M.D., center largely on the clinical use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat depression and psychotic disorders. Dr. Sutor also seeks to improve clinical care delivery systems and reduce healthcare barriers for patients with limited English proficiency.
Focus areas
- Use of ECT to treat depressive disorders, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- Use of medical interpreters to reduce inpatient length of stay and improve care for patients who do not speak English.
Significance to patient care
ECT is a rapidly effective treatment for many severe psychiatric disturbances. Research done to better understand ECT delivery methods, and using ECT to treat patients with medical comorbidities, can improve care for patients with severe mental illnesses. This research can help reduce suffering and improve how well patients function.
It is well known that patients who do not speak English have worse medical outcomes when receiving care, compared to patients who speak English. Due to a shortage of interpreters, healthcare teams must often rely on less-than-ideal methods to talk with these patients. Dr. Sutor is working to create systems using artificial intelligence to better find patients who would benefit from regular, face-to-face medical interpreters. This approach would best use the limited resource of face-to-face interpreters.