Differing approaches with one goal: Improving children’s health

There is good and bad news when it comes to setting an agenda for the health of this nation’s children in 2013, according to a recently published editorial.

The good news is that the five leading pediatric organizations are unified in their goal of improving the health of children overall in the year ahead. The bad news, however, is that each of the organizations — the AAP, Academic Pediatric Association, the Association of Medial School Pediatric Department Chairs, American Pediatric Society, and the Society for Pediatric Research — has different approaches on how to accomplish this goal.

Robert W. Block, MD, FAAP, recent past-president of the AAP and past chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and leaders from the other four pediatric organizations wrote a paper in Pediatrics for the 113th Congress detailing priorities for the health of the nation’s children.

In the paper, each institution outlined its priorities, with the AAP focusing on more legislation that makes children a priority, and the others calling for more training, diversifying workforces, biomedical research in the pediatric arena, and ending childhood poverty.

“Although most agree that children are our most precious resource, they are often forgotten when it comes to the overall priorities of Congress,” Block and colleagues wrote. “The message here is clear: We must provide for the future health and well-being of our children by guaranteeing access to quality health care, which is provided by a culturally diverse primary care and specialty workforce that is adequate to meet their medical and social needs.”

Lewis R. First

In an accompanying editorial to the Block paper, Lewis R. First, MD, editor-in-chief of Pediatrics and chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, said that although “each of the five organizations has picked different priorities for Congress, a unifying theme in this important special article is to improve the health of children — which is exactly what we and other peer-reviewed journals strive to do through the articles we publish monthly.”

For more information:

Block R. Pediatrics. 2013;131:109-119.

First L. Pediatrics. 2013;131:147-148.

Lewis R.First, MD, can be reached at Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Given Courtyard S-250, Burlington, VT 05405.

Disclosure: Block reports no relevant financial disclosures. First is the editor-in-chief of the journal Pediatrics, for which the department of pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine receives a stipend from the AAP.