Cincinnati Children’s and Nationwide Children’s Collaborate to Address Improving Pediatric ADHD Care

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital are collaborating to help pediatricians deliver better care to children with ADHD.

While the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued evidence-based guidelines and recommendations for ADHD care, most pediatricians have difficulty implementing these guidelines. Investigators at Cincinnati Childrens have developed an intervention called the ADHD Collaborative that focuses on quality improvement methods and innovative tools, such as a web portals, to promote and support the systematic use of AAP-recommended practice guidelines.

The program, which started at Cincinnati Children’s in 2004 has been used to train over 200 physicians at 55 practices in the Greater Cincinnati area. Thus far, the program appears to produce 2-to 4-fold increases in the use of evidence-based ADHD-related practices by physicians. The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded a $2.6 million research grant to investigators at Cincinnati Children’s and Nationwide Children’s in Columbus to assess whether improved ADHD care translates into improved outcomes for patients with ADHD. Beginning this fall, they will recruit 100 physicians and 600 patients from 36 pediatric practices in central Ohio to participate in the program. The program will run through July, 2015.

This research collaboration will fulfill the goals of expanding the program and it will allow the doctors who are involved to determine if their quality improvement intervention translates to better outcomes for patients who have been diagnosed with ADHD.

Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice and vice president of Health Services Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s, explains that he and his colleagues have several expectations for the program. “We are hoping to improve patient outcomes and enhance our collaborations with Cincinnati Children’s,” he said. “We are also hoping to establish a network of primary care practices that are interested in large scale quality improvement programs.”

According to Jeff Epstein, PhD, a psychologist in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children's, the program has substantial public health significance. “If the program continues to prove effective, the model has the potential to be implemented at community pediatric practices across the nation, which could potentially improve the ADHD care and outcomes of hundreds of thousands of children nationwide.”

About Cincinnati Children’s

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is one of just eight children’s hospitals named to the Honor Roll in U.S. News and World Report’s 2010-11 Best Children’s Hospitals. It is ranked #1 for digestive disorders and highly ranked for its expertise in pulmonology, cancer, neonatology, heart and heart surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, diabetes and endocrinology, orthopedics, kidney disorders and urology. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health. It is internationally recognized for quality and transformation work by Leapfrog, The Joint Commission, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and by hospitals and health organizations it works with globally. Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.

About Nationwide Children’s

Ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” and Parents magazine’s 2009 top 10 “Best Children's Hospitals” lists, Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare networks providing care for infants, children, adolescents and adult patients with congenital disease. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital faculty train the next generation of pediatricians, scientists and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities in the U.S., supporting basic, clinical, translational and health services research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Currently, two buildings totaling approximately 300,000 square feet are dedicated to research on the Nationwide Children's campus. An additional 225,000 square feet of research space will be added when a third research building opens in 2012. More information is available at www.NationwideChildrens.org/Research.