The Children with Disabilities Algorithm (CWDA) consists of 669 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9) codes determined to have a high likelihood of indicating children with disabilities (CWD). CWDA provides a theoretically grounded, scalable, and affordable method for identifying CWD using ICD-9 codes.
We anticipate that CWDA will vastly increase the feasibility and rigor with which stakeholders will be able to identify CWD for quality assessment and subsequent quality improvement efforts. CWDA will also help researchers expand our current understanding of care quality for CWD beyond the case study, potentially revealing systemic issues and more generalizable solutions. Because stakeholders and investigators can stratify data by disability status to reveal differences in care experiences and quality, CWDA should enable evaluations of whether CWD receive appropriate differences in care or are at risk for experiencing disparities in quality. Differences can then become the focus of investigations and interventions to reduce and, eventually, eliminate any potential disparities for CWD.
Downloads & Contact Information
Please provide your name and email address to receive a copy of the CWDA materials from CEPQM. These materials include:
- An article describing the development of CWDA
- A list of the ICD-9-CM codes included in CWDA
- SAS program code for applying CWDA to a patient-level dataset
Those interested in learning more about CWDA may contact CEPQM@childrens.harvard.edu.
