Using Academic Detailing and Practice Quality Improvement to Improve Adoption of the AAP Primary Care Guideline for ADHD

The Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI) proposes to use its successful Educating Practices in the Community (EPIC) program to train pediatric primary care sites in Connecticut to use the AAP Clinical Practice Guideline for the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents (AAP ADHD Guidelines). We will partner with the Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) program at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Office for Community Child Health (OCCH) to develop and implement a data-driven, practice quality improvement activity that engages practices in using monthly plan-do-study-act cycles to improve care on targeted measures. The CT Family Support Network (CT FSN), a statewide family governed and operated organization serving families of children with special health care needs, will bring family experience to training and technical support to participating practices. CT FSN is a long time collaborator with EPIC in efforts to support pediatric sites in transforming care to the medical home model. Together we will ensure that ten pediatric sites improve on their implementation of one or more components of the AAP ADHD Guideline. Core components of our work include: 1) onsite visits to pediatric practices using the principles of academic detailing; 2) practice participation in a data-driven quality improvement activity; and 3) provision of technical assistance to support adoption of guidelines and PQI work. We will also implement an overall project quality improvement (QI) methodology to guide implementation of project activities.