Disseminating a Model Intervention to Promote Improved ADHD Care in the Community

Grant Number: 1R21MH082714
PI: Jeffery Epstein, PhD
Collaborators: Joshua Langberg, PhD; Phil Lichtenstein, MD; Greg Eberhart, MD (Community Pediatrician)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has established a set of consensus guidelines for pediatricians to follow. These guidelines can be challenging to implement in typical community-based practices. The Center for ADHD at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has developed an intervention  that focuses on modifying pediatricians’ office systems using quality-improvement (QI) to promote  changes in ADHD care.

The objective of this study is to modify the  intervention to make it transportable and then evaluate this version in terms of effectiveness, consumer satisfaction and costs. A transportable intervention will utilize telehealth video-conferencing, a web portal and long-distance data collection. Initially, three pediatric practices will be recruited to test and refine the distal intervention delivery methodology. Then, eight new pediatric practices will be randomly assigned to receive the distal intervention or to a control group (treatment as usual). Information about pediatric practice behavior will be collected at baseline,  six months and one year post-baseline. The study design will allow for a preliminary assessment of the feasibility and effectiveness of the distal intervention in terms of rates of evidence-based practice behaviors to patients, change in pediatrician attitudes, consumer satisfaction and costs.