Improving Care of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Sickle Cell Trait: The Hemoglobinopathy Learning Collaborative Series

There are 15 improvement teams working on quality improvement projects focused on improving acute care management, provision of recommended care, transition, self-management, provider education, and screening, counseling, and education for individuals with SCD and SCT. The 5 articles in this special series span these major content areas, from improving outcomes in the emergency department using standardized order sets to assessing the readiness of adolescents to transition to adult care, to using health information technology to improve care coordination, to developing a home pain management plan, and to using patient navigators to help coordinate care and resources. The series begins with the article by Treadwell et al in this issue and will continue for the next several months. The WISCH teams will serve as leaders for sustainable and positive change for treatment of individuals with sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait in the United States. Their work is an important step towards transforming care for people with sickle cell disease, so that each person with sickle cell disease will receive the highest quality of care throughout their lifespan.

Corresponding author: Suzette Oyeku, MD, MPH, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 3444 Kossuth Ave, 1st Fl, Bronx, NY 10467, soyeku@nichq.org.