Health Surveillance in ID/DD

AADMD INFO BLAST - FOR AADMD MEMBERS

Our thanks and appreciation to AADMD Membership Chair Dr David Fray for providing this update on healthcare surveillance in our population. David is the Director of DD Services in Hawaii.

Rick Rader, MD
AADMD Vice President Policy & Advocacy

Dear Colleagues,

We wanted to update you on some of our recent activities and what we hope to be working on in the coming months related to improving health surveillance for people with intellectual disabilities (ID).

• First, we have summarized our second meeting in a short report, Health Surveillance of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Results of a Working Meetingthat is now posted on both the CDC and AUCD websites.  This summary provides an overview of background and action plans in a way that should be helpful for bringing persons outside the immediate field up to speed on key issues.
   
• Second, we submitted and had accepted a journal article on the process and deliberations of the two meetings.  Entitled Developing a Health Surveillance System for People with Intellectual Disabilities in the United States, the paper should appear in the September, 2010 issue of Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities.  The intention is that the paper will foster greater scientific understanding of background issues in surveillance and intellectual disabilities.
  
  
• Third, we have met with a number of federal agencies in person in order to gauge interest in their involvement in ID surveillance activities, including ways in which future partnerships may develop. We plan to have follow-up meetings during the summer months.
  
  
• Additionally, we are in the process of awarding a one-year cooperative agreement to research the issues of operationally defining intellectual disabilities for surveillance purposes and conducting a review of available sources of health data for people with ID.

Save the Date:  Next steps are planning a small research conference on this topic for early next summer.  Keep the dates of May 23-25, 2011 marked on your calendar. 

With best wishes,

Gloria Krahn                                                               George Jesien
Vince Campbell                                                          Adriane Griffen
Michael Fox                                                                Danielle Edson
Ismaila Ramon

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Association of University Centers on Disabilities