One local doctor is leading the way in how mental health patients are diagnosed.

Dr. Nelson Handal is the mastermind behind CLINICOM, an online patient assessment tool that can help speed up the process of how many patients a doctor can see in a day, ultimately cutting down wait times.

Here’s how it works: New patients receive an email with a link to complete the 45-minute assessment prior to their first appointment with their doctor. 

“Over 10 years ago, we started thinking our patients needed more time to talk to us and tell us their stories, but we are limited by insurance companies in how much time we can spend and also limited with the demand we have for patients,” Handal said.

Dothan Behavioral Medicine Clinic in Dothan was the first place in the world to offer this type of online patient assessment. 

Since its inception roughly 10 years ago, they have assessed some 35,000 patients globally. 

It took several years and a team of engineers from as far away as Germany help to bring this innovation to fruition and help translate it into four different languages. 

Handal recently published an article this past summer in psychiatric research about CLINICOM, which caught the attention of Forbes magazine. 

The article about Handal and CLINICOM was published online Tuesday. 

“It feels rewarding because we want to be able to offer CLINICOM to as many providers as possible in different countries so we’re trying to help the community and other communities as well all from this little town,” Handal said.