There's No Place Like Medical Home When It Comes to Developmental Surveillance

From Dr. Lewis R. First on Pediatrics' blog.

Despite the emphasis on developmental surveillance as being a critical component of a child health maintenance visit, only half of U.S. parents self-report they are being asked about their infant or child's developmental concerns during pediatric health maintenance visits -- at least based on a concerning study by Guerrero et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0030) being early released online this week. The authors used the National Survey of Children's Health database and found substantive disparities in who is being asked about their child's development based on differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language spoken, and the presence or absence of a medical home. The good news is that when the medical home is in place, the disparities narrow.