Webinar: A Community-Led Approach for Measuring and Improving Quality of Care

The Health Equity Webinar highlighted how the IIDDEAL project developed a quality rubric centered on what matters most to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The session shared key findings and explored their impact on measurement, clinical care, and policy.

People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) experienced persistent poor health outcomes, including higher rates of COVID-19, maternal mortality, mental illness, chronic conditions, and preventable injuries. Despite these disparities, the United States lacked a consistent approach to measuring the quality of healthcare for this population. The IIDDEAL project engaged more than 200 community and healthcare stakeholders, including individuals with IDD, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, payers, and policymakers, to develop a quality rubric based on outcomes that mattered most to people with IDD.

This webinar presented key findings from the IIDDEAL project and explored their implications for quality measurement, clinical practice, and policy. Panelists discussed the development of nine health outcome domains, 29 supporting healthcare elements, and the most appropriate existing quality measures, along with strategies to address current gaps and support adoption in programs such as Medicaid.