Quality improvement in neurology: Muscular dystrophy quality measures

Abstract

The muscular dystrophies (MDs) are a heterogeneous group of genetically determined myopathies. Identification of underlying genetic defects has demonstrated that MDs exhibit significant phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. One genetic mutation can lead to a variety of phenotypes while different genetic mutations can manifest similar phenotypes; therefore MDs are challenging to diagnose.

A major goal of health care reform in the United States is to replace the traditional fee-for-service model with a value-based system, which incentivizes high-quality care. Quality measurement is an integral and necessary part of this process.1,2 While standardizing care of MDs can be challenging because of their heterogeneity, common themes of management, such as the maintenance of nutrition, sustaining mobility, and management of complications, are applicable to many MDs. We report a quality measurement set for the management of MDs.