More Medical Schools Expected To Train Doctors On IDD

A new effort is underway to dramatically expand training on intellectual and developmental disabilities in the country’s medical schools.

Health insurance company Elevance Health is providing $1.42 million in funding with the goal of more than doubling the number of medical schools preparing future doctors to care for this population.

The investment will support the National Inclusive Medical Health Education Curriculum, or NICHE Medicalan initiative of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry that helps medical schools develop and implement intellectual and developmental disabilities curriculum.

Currently, NICHE Medical supports 20 medical schools, representing only 10% of all programs nationwide. With funding, that figure is expected to rise to 25%, Elevance Health said, a threshold that will likely encourage all medical schools to do the same.

“More than half of medical students have no training in caring for adults with IDD, and education about children with IDD also remains minimal,” said Dr. Priya Chandan, who serves as NICHE Medical project director. and associate clinical professor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “However, Elevance Health’s historic collaboration and funding will accelerate the inclusion of IDD in medical education, empowering thousands of future physicians across the country to equitably and effectively address the needs of patients who have IDD.” .

Over the next five years, the new funding is expected to support implementation of the curriculum at 28 additional medical schools, as well as scholarships, Elevance Health said. Grants have already been awarded to Albany Medical College in New York, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, New York College of Medicine, Rowan-Virtua College of Osteopathic Medicine in New Jersey and to Stanford Medical School in California, UMass Chan School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

The lack of training on developmental disabilities in medical schools has created significant challenges in access to health care. A 2022 study found that only 41% of doctors considered themselves capable of providing patients with disabilities with a quality of care similar to that of others.

Disability advocates have pushed for years to add training on the needs of this population to medical school curriculum requirements, but to date, those efforts have been unsuccessful. However, last year, the presidents of the American Medical Association and the American Dental Association pledged to work to expand disability training for medical and dental students.

Federal officials also recently announced $8 million in allocations to 18 medical training programs to improve care for people with physical or intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as people with limited English proficiency.

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