Program Initiatives
The Ohio AAP Chapter is in an exciting period of development right now, with many great programs already implemented. These include Quality Improvement (QI)/Maintenance of Certification (MOC) programs as well as Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs.
Quality Improvement (QI) / Maintenance of Certification (MOC)
- Pound of Cure Learning Collaborative - Developed as a series of office modules, A Pound of Cure is based on the nine Expert Committee Recommendations formed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and 14 other collaborating organizations in 2007. The Pound of Cure Learning Collaborative will bring together 12-20 practices throughout Ohio, from July, 2012 through May, 2013 with the goal of providing practices with tools and resources for managing their overweight and obese patient population. The intervention is presented as a set of succinct modules for use within a brief 15-20 minute time frame in a busy practice. These modules are structured to guide physicians in identifying a child’s overall obesity-related health risk by collecting a comprehensive history – including family, diet, and physical activity history – as well as a physical exam and laboratory evaluation. This information is used to prompt physicians to address fundamental behaviors that fuel excess weight gain at follow-up visits. The first wave of the Pound of Cure Learning Collaborative earned pediatricians 25 ABP Maintenance of Certification points.
- Injury Prevention Learning Collaborative - Each year, more than 14 million children under 14 years of age will sustain an injury serious enough to require medical attention, and more than 92,000 children will suffer permanent disability. The Ohio Chapter, AAP has developed a Quality Improvement learning collaborative focusing on injury prevention to offer pediatricians a tool which enables them to screen families for the greatest injury risks at every well child visit, as well as allow them to address targeted and individually pertinent issues with families. Standardized talking points and education will be provided to the quality improvement team, who will then share the information and education to other providers in the practice. The Injury Prevention Learning Collaborative will launch on Thursday, September 27 with the kick-off Learning Session, and will continue through April, 2013. This project is eligible for 25 ABP Maintenance of Certification points.
- Chapter Quality Network (CQN) Asthma Project - Since 2009, the Ohio Chapter, AAP has worked with the AAP National Office to improve asthma care and outcomes for the nine million children nationally who suffer from the most common serious pediatric chronic disease. In total, nearly 50 Ohio practices have participated in the Chapter Quality Network (CQN) Asthma Pilot Project, or CQN2, which wraps up in December, 2012. The AAP National Office has received additional funding to support CQN3, and the Ohio Chapter will be recruiting an additional 10-20 practices for the 18-month learning collaborative that will teach practitioners methods in quality improvement, and ways to improve asthma care and outcomes within the medical office. A start date for the learning collaborative has not yet been determined, however, the CQN2 Asthma Project is eligible for 40 ABP Maintenance of Certification points.
- Building Mental Wellness (BMW) Learning Collaborative - The Building Mental Wellness (BMW) Learning Collaborative is designed to improve the delivery of children’s mental health services, including anticipatory guidance, screening, early diagnosis and management of social-emotional problems in primary care, while integrating resources from the Pediatric Psychiatry Network (PPN) in Ohio. The goal is to integrate the science of child and adolescent brain development and the science of adverse childhood experiences into a model for promoting healthy social and emotional development and mental health in two developmental stages of childhood: birth to age 6, and ages 7 to 18. Practice teams will participate in a Learning Session in early June to learn strategies to promote protective skills, screen and identify mental health issues earlier, provide office-based interventions, link with community resources and appropriately use psychotropic medications. This 6-month project is eligible for 25 ABP Maintenance of Certification points, during both waves of the project; the first wave will launch in June with 4-8 practices participating, and the second wave will launch in the fall with 12-20 practices participating.
Continuing Medical Education
- Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound - The Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound toolkit addresses the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The goal is to provide primary care providers with simple tools to educate parents in prevention strategies by making good nutritional and physical activity decisions for their children, beginning with infant well child visits, and continuing through 18 years of age. The complete toolkit includes a BMI wheel, age-specific parent handouts, anticipatory guidance charts, healthy serving size handouts, snack suggestions, sports nutrition information, calcium information, and posters for the medical office. Office-based trainings will be tailored to address the specific needs of the medical practice. Participating practices will receive the complete Ounce of Prevention toolkit for free.
- Maximizing Office Based Immunizations (MOBI) - For more than 10 years, the Ohio AAP has received funding from the Ohio Department of Health to help raise the overall immunization rate among Ohio’s 2-year-old children to 90% or greater. The Maximizing Office Based Immunizations (MOBI) program is the free statewide provider immunization education and training program, which suggests ways for practitioners to improve existing office policies and practices in terms of vaccine administration. In 2011, MOBI conducted more than 500 presentations, training approximately 4,000 health care providers in pediatric and family medicine practices.
- Parental Refusal of Vaccines - Due to the growing trend of parental refusal of vaccines, outbreaks of previously dormant infectious diseases are occurring. With the increase in celebrity endorsement for vaccine refusal, and the continued coverage of unfounded science over negative aspects of vaccines, more members of the Ohio AAP have asked for assistance in responding to parents and others regarding the safety and importance of vaccines. Through a National AAP grant, Ohio AAP has developed a trio of brochures aimed at different populations of parents/guardians and how they view vaccines.
- Pediatric Vision Screening Training - The pediatric vision screening webinar, offered through a partnership between Ohio AAP and Prevent Blindness Ohio, provides an hour-long overview of children's vision disorders, and the importance of conducting preschool vision screenings for children in the medical practice. Attendees are able to identify common eye problems that can lead to amblyopia, explain the AAP/AAFP recommendations for pediatric vision screening, as well as perform proper screening for visual acuity and ocular alignment. All participants receive an assortment of children's eye health and safety brochures, as well as the Preschool Vision Screening for Healthcare Professionals manual, which was co-written by Prevent Blindness Ohio, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Ohio Department of Health.
Other Programs
- Early Literacy - The mission of the Early Literacy program is to make literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care, so that children grow up with books and a love of reading. The model uses the existing structure of pediatric primary care, in which parents of young children have regular, one-on-one, developmentally focused visits with pediatricians during the first years of a child's life. By integrating literacy into well-child visits, pediatricians promote the acquisition of spoken and written language skills in young children, thereby increasing the likelihood of eventual school success.
- "My Story" Foster Care Program - Every person has a story to tell, and this is no different for children. The "My Story" Foster Care Program was developed to give Ohio's foster care children a chance to tell their story. Physicians are in a unique position to have one-on-one conversations with children at the initial well-child foster care medical exam. The "My Story" program provides medical care providers with information in caring for these children, and provides bags for the foster children that include a portable medical record, social/emotional information for the foster parent, and a variety of other tools to help children become more comfortable in their new environment.
