# Surveying Physicians to Understand Health Care Disparities Affecting Persons with Disability and Identify Approaches to Improve Their Care

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $588,201

## Abstract

According to Healthy People 2020, Americans with disability experience substantial
health care disparities. A growing body of research, primarily involving individual and focus
group interviews with persons with disability, has documented factors contributing to these
health care disparities. Some factors reflect the personal attributes, beliefs, and preferences of
individuals with disability. However, other contributors reported by persons with disability relate
to systematic barriers within health care delivery systems, policies, and the attitudes and actions
of physicians and other health care professionals. Nonetheless, relatively little research has
examined the views, practices, and understanding of physicians about the barriers and
facilitators to providing care to persons with disability, their legal responsibilities to
accommodate these patients, and recommendations for improving quality of care for this
population. This evidence gap raises concerns since physicians play central roles in deciding
which services patients receive, initiating physical and communication accommodations, setting
the tone of clinical encounters, and thus mediating health care disparities.
 The overall goals of this project are to understand factors that contribute to health care
disparities for persons with disability from the perspective of physicians practicing in outpatient
settings and to use this knowledge to make feasible recommendations for improving care. Given
these overall goals, this 3-year, interdisciplinary project has 3 Specific Aims:
1. Develop the Survey of Physicians' Practices and Attitudes (SOPPA) to ask primary care and
 selected specialist physicians about barriers and facilitators to caring for persons with
 disability in outpatient settings and their recommendations to improve this care.
2. Use SOPPA to conduct and then analyze a survey of 420 practicing primary care and 420
 practicing specialist physicians nationwide (total = 840 completed surveys).
3. Based on SOPPA's findings, broad literature reviews, key informant interviews, and input
 from persons with diverse types of disability, develop a toolkit of “best practice” strategies for
 reducing health care disparities and improving quality of care for persons with disability and
 evaluate these recommendations through additional physician and patient interviews.
 Improving the health and health care of individuals with disability is a critical Healthy
People 2020 priority. This will be the first study to examine how physicians nationwide approach
caring for persons with disability and to suggest various strategies that could be applied locally
to decrease disparities and achieve equitable care for this growing population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9922981
- **Project number:** 5R01HD091211-03
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** LISA I. IEZZONI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $588,201
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9922981

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9922981, Surveying Physicians to Understand Health Care Disparities Affecting Persons with Disability and Identify Approaches to Improve Their Care (5R01HD091211-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9922981. Licensed CC0.

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