Quality improvement in neurology: Distal symmetric polyneuropathy quality measures.

Peripheral neuropathy is a common neurologic disorder, affecting 2% to 8% of the population in population-based studies with confirmation by neurologist examination. These prevalence numbers are remarkably stable across developed countries. In 1999, 8.

Quality improvement in neurology: dementia management quality measures.

Professional and advocacy organizations have long urged that dementia should be recognized and properly diagnosed. With the passage of the National Alzheimer's Project Act in 2011, an Advisory Council for Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services was convened to advise the Department of Health and Human Services. In May 2012, the Council produced the first National Plan to address Alzheimer's disease, and prominent in its recommendations is a call for quality measures suitable for evaluating and tracking dementia care in clinical settings.

Quality improvement in neurology: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis quality measures: report of the quality measurement and reporting subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a lethal, progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of motor neurons.(1) Patients with ALS lose function in the limbs, speech, swallowing, and breathing muscles. The cause of the disease is still not known for most patients.

Quality improvement in neurology: dementia management quality measures (executive summary).

This article represents the efforts of an interdisciplinary work group, the Dementia Measures Work Group (DWG), composed of representatives of diverse national organizations who convened specifically to define optimal standards of dementia care for individual practitioners as well as multidisciplinary teams. The DWG measurement set includes all stages of dementia in a single measure set, calls for the use of functional staging in planning care, prompts the use of validated instruments in patient and caregiver assessment and intervention, highlights the relevance of using palliative care concepts to guide care prior to the advanced stages of illness, and provides evidence-based support for its recommendations and guidance on the selection of instruments for tracking patient-centered outcomes. In addition, it specifies annual reassessment and updating of interventions and care plans for dementia-related problems that affect families and other caregivers as well as patients.

Quality measures for neurologists: Financial and practice implications.

Measuring and reporting health care quality is increasingly becoming part of clinical practice and reimbursement for specialists, including neurologists. The goal is to improve the value of care. Current major programs tie quality measurements to reimbursement, including programs from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: the Physician Quality Reporting System, the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (and Meaningful Use), and Accountable Care Organizations.

Teleneurology applications: Report of the Telemedicine Work Group of the American Academy of Neurology.

Objective: To review current literature on neurology telemedicine and to discuss its application to patient care, neurology practice, military medicine, and current federal policy.

Methods: Review of practice models and published literature on primary studies of the efficacy of neurology telemedicine.

Results: Teleneurology is of greatest benefit to populations with restricted access to general and subspecialty neurologic care in rural areas, those with limited mobility, and those deployed by the military.