Technology Tools: Increasing Our Reach in National Surveillance of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Leezenbaum et al. (2019) wrote a roadmap. They asked: how can we use everyday tech to watch the health of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the whole country?

The team pulled together five tools: big-data number crunching, electronic health records, wearables, telehealth, and smart-home gadgets. No new experiment—just a clear story of what is possible.

The authors say Medicaid and Medicare files are gold mines. Add Fitbit data and Zoom doctor visits and we can spot problems early, even when families move across state lines.

They warn that right now we are flying blind. No one is combining these feeds into one picture.

Bonardi et al. (2019) looked at the same year and agreed state data are messy. Their work fits inside the bigger national frame B et al. draw—like zooming out from a single state to the whole map.

Robertson et al. (2013) built the ruler. They showed how to find IDD cases inside insurance files—two doctor visits works best. B et al. take that ruler and ask us to use it every day, nationwide.

DiSipio (2024) updates the dream. COVID pushed clinics online and proved Zoom visits cut stress. That real-world push gives B et al.’s 2019 idea its first legs.

Tyler et al. (2021) tested one slice: electronic consults for adults with Down syndrome. Each patient got eight community links. Their small win shows how the big vision can look in practice.

You can start today. Ask your IT team to export Medicaid billing codes for your clients. Add a simple telehealth check-in each quarter. Track one wearable metric like step count. These three clicks move you from no data to early warning—and that is national surveillance in action.