Organization: The Regents of the University of California Los Angeles
Primary Contact: Dr. Paul Chung
Grant Amount: $165,362 for 18 months
Date Awarded:
To identify short and long-term outcomes important to children with medical complexity and to achieve consensus among national stakeholders of measurable key population outcomes and measurement gaps.
Project completed
Children with medical complexity account for about 40 percent of pediatric Medicaid spending, yet comprise only 3 percent of the pediatric population. Currently, no population measures exist to describe these children, who have diverse conditions of variable severity. A study published in Pediatrics suggests 10 potential outcome domains as a starting point.
Researchers interviewed 23 national experts on children with medical complexity to better understand population health for these children. They developed five themes that characterize this group of children and their families, concluding that measuring population health for them is challenging but necessary.