Consortium-based consultation/liaison research: commentary and perspective.

Although a consortium approach for clinical trials is a common research strategy which has made important contributions in other disciplines in medicine, to date it has not been employed for research efforts in the consultation/liaison setting. There are several reasons for this: the relative newness of the field, lack of administrative control over patient care, and the unavailability of a standard methodology that could be adapted to multiple sites. Four basic research strategies can be employed within the framework of a research consortium to advance scientific knowledge in consultation/liaison psychiatry: 1) prevalence studies of psychiatric morbidity in medical settings; 2) interrelationship among psychiatric and medical conditions; 3) the outcome of psychiatric interventions within medical milieu; and, 4) cost-benefit evaluation. A field-tested computerized database protocol and a software system usable on an office-based microcomputer were employed to obtain standardized data across multiple training sites. The advantages and disadvantages of consortium studies are described.