Meeting the health care needs of persons with disabilities

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has established the Office of Priority Populations Research and is currently developing a research agenda to improve health care for persons with disability (PWDs). This article describes the background of and potential for the AHRQ disability agenda and some of the challenges ahead and considers future directions for disability-related health services research. Strategies for this agenda might include ensuring the inclusion of PWDs in current and future health care research studies and database development; support for studies and data focusing exclusively on PWDs; and support for studies of the challenges common to all or most of the priority populations.