First-Spinoff TOAST project

TOAST

First Spin-off Project

TOAST is the CPLU's new project, carried out as part of the First Spin-off program funded by the Walloon Region. This project aims to facilitate access to and interpretation of psychological and speech therapy tests validated by scientific literature. The TOAST project therefore hopes to facilitate the practice of clinicians who wish to adopt an evidence-based approach.

The reform of the healthcare professions is focused on the quality of care. Clinicians will be required to work within the framework of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). This approach emphasizes the importance of guiding clinical practice with evidence-based data. Several barriers may be encountered: (a) the lack of valid tools available; (b) the difficulty of accessing evidence on these tools; (c) a lack of knowledge to interpret these tools in a diagnostic context; or (d) to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical interventions. These issues are closely related. The objective of this project is to develop and test the effectiveness of a service package aimed at improving the quality of clinical reasoning by psychologists/speech therapists. To this end, several areas are being worked on. Specifically, checklists, procedures, and training will be created to identify reliable measurement instruments in psychology/speech therapy and to improve the interpretation of the results obtained when administering these tools, taking into account their psychometric (statistical) properties. The effect of this service package on (a) the quality of practitioners' clinical reasoning (impact of procedures and training on psychologists' skills) and (b) the quality of care provided (impact of procedures and training on treatment effectiveness) is being evaluated.