CHESS Health Expands Executive Team with Vice President of Clinical Performance


CHESS Health, the leading provider of comprehensive addiction management technology, today announced that Caitlyn Kjolhede-Larson, BSN, RN, MBA, has joined the team as vice president of clinical performance.

Kjolhede-Larson comes to CHESS with nearly 15 years of clinical experience, including four years in the digital addiction health space. Prior to CHESS, she was the vice president of clinical operations and growth for DynamiCare Health where she developed multiple clinical protocols for substance use monitoring and recovery support. She has taught and trained a variety of healthcare professionals in addiction medicine. Kjolhede-Larson is passionate about improving quality of care. She serves as a standing committee member at the National Quality Forum (NQF) for Behavioral Health and Substance Use. NQF plays a key role in shaping our national health and healthcare improvement priorities, including the National Quality Strategy, through its convening of the National Quality Partners.

In her new role, Kjolhede-Larson will apply her expertise to further the clinical impact of the CHESS technology, principally its evidence-based Connections App for individuals with substance use disorder (SUD), on behalf of its health plan and state/local government customers. She will work across the entire client base to share best practices demonstrated to increase treatment adherence, reduce relapse, and achieve cost-of-care savings, as well as identify processes and product enhancements that will drive even greater clinical impact. Kjolhede-Larson will also oversee CHESS Health’s Peer Engagement Team, which moderates the online peer communities in the Connections App through which individuals with SUD get and give peer support, feel less isolated, share recovery tips, and build recovery confidence.    

“In the past year, CHESS clients have measured 30% improvement in treatment adherence among patients using the Connections App. In another study of multiple clients, we identified a 40% reduction in key relapse risk factors among high utilizers of the app,” said Hans Morefield, CHESS’ chief executive officer. “Caitlyn brings a wealth of clinical expertise related to digital support for substance use disorder treatment, measurement-based care, and the use of peer recovery support specialists, all of which she’ll apply to help all of our customers achieve these results and more.”

“CHESS Health’s mission to improve the patient and provider addiction treatment and recovery experience is important and a leading driver of what attracted me to the company. Measurement-based care, when applied to treatment programs, can make important and significant improvements,” said Kjolhede-Larson. “I am thrilled to join this team of dedicated individuals and to work closely with CHESS’ customers to help individuals across the continuum succeed in treatment and recovery.”

About CHESS Health

CHESS Health is the leading provider of service-enabled technology supporting the entire addiction management and recovery lifecycle. The CHESS platform manages recovery across the continuum, getting more patients into treatment (eIntervention), improving outcomes through digital CBT (eTherapy), reducing relapse and enabling long term recovery (eRecovery). Providers, health plans and governmental organizations leverage the platform for clinical and financial benefits, including 20-30% increase in treatment adherence, 40-50% reduction in relapse risk factors and $8,000 in total cost of care savings per individual. Nationally recognized by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP), the CHESS platform is also sought out by leading addiction researchers for inclusion in clinical studies of new addiction treatment, intervention and prevention protocols. For more information on CHESS Health, including to request a demonstration of its consumer and telehealth functionality, visit http://www.chess.health.

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