TRENDS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-102

Having surveyed the health services for children throughout the nation during the postwar years and having given attention to ways of meeting the needs which were revealed, the Academy, through its Committee for the Improvement of Child Health, called attention to the importance of further development of regional planning for pediatric education and services. This Committee in a report published in 1950 stated: To meet this two-fold need [better training for physicians and better distribution of services], a solution is evolving which has as its keystone regional planning for the decentralization of training which carries with it a better distribution of medical care into the very areas where the greatest deficiencies have been shown to exist. This concept is not new or original. It has been receiving a great deal of emphasis particularly in relation to hospitals and to a lesser degree in relation to medical schools. Evidence of progress along lines recommended by the Academy in its 1950 report is again apparent. Early in October 1953 a group of 100 educators, doctors and public officials met under the auspices of the Massachusetts Medical-Dental School Commission to explore the possibilities of regional cooperation in medicine, dentistry and veterinary practice. Emphasis was placed upon a program that would cooperate with existing private and public institutions rather than compete with them.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-679
Author(s):  
JOHN P. HUBBARD ◽  
JOHN MCK. MITCHELL

A year ago we presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy some of the findings that were beginning to emerge from the Study of Child Health Services. This comprehensive nation-wide survey is now complete and in publication. One of the most important aspects of this study is the fact that it has coupled with a study of services an evaluation of the training of those who are rendering the services. Many members of the Academy participated in the collection of information from practicing physicians, hospitals and community health agencies. The results of these inquiries are now in the hands of state chairmen who are reporting the findings for their own areas. These state reports which are appearing in increasing number contain not only a summary of the data but also include recommendations as to what ought to be done within the state to fill existing gaps and to improve the health of children. But the information on pediatric education is less familiar to the many who participated in state programs. This part of the study was necessarily conducted from a central office with one of us, Dr. Mitchell, making a personal visit to each of the 70 approved medical schools and nearly all of the hospitals approved for pediatric residency. Now that we have reached a point where we can see the whole picture, the Study of Pediatric Education appears in a place of prominent, if not dominant, importance. Service is, after all, a dynamic function, and can be only so good as the training, skills and abilities of the individuals who give it. In the last analysis, good medical care for children depends not so much on the physical facilities of the hospitals or the expansion of health services as upon the judgment and skill of physicians. This skill is the result of training and experience. It was this very fact which at the outset led to the inclusion of an evaluation of pediatric education and which now appears as the logical starting point for a program for the improvement of child health.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 436-436
Author(s):  
JOHN P. HUBBARD

THE first step of the Committee for Improvement of Child Health has been a big one. The Committee has drawn up a recommendation for federal support of pediatric education. This recommendation arises directly out of the Academy's nation-wide two-year Study of Child Health Services and is the first specific action taken by the ICH Committee. It is a step which has not been undertaken lightly. The proposal was drawn up after consideration in two meetings and consultation with deans of medical schools and heads of pediatric departments, officials of the Federal Security Administration and others particularly concerned. The recommendation was then submitted to the Executive Board and received the unanimous approval of the Board at a special meeting in Chicago on February 8, 1948.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-518
Author(s):  
JOHN MCK. MITCHELL ◽  
KATHERINE BAIN ◽  
JOHN P. HUBBARD

Quality is one of the most important components of services rendered for child health. While innate ability and on-the-job learning may result in the production of outstanding achievement on the part of an individual or organization, by and large the quality of a given service may be measured satisfactorily by the fundamental training of those who conduct it. The conduct of child health services comes far from resting solely in the hands of the physician, still further from those of the pediatrician alone. Nevertheless the physician forms, if not the heart, at least an aorta, through which must flow, if but for an instant, the whole volume of child care. Hence the size and strength of the group which constitute such a vessel become a matter of primary concern in a study having to do with the health of children. With this concept in mind, a Study of Pediatric Education became an integral part of the Study of Child Health Services organized by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In undertaking such a study, there was full realization of the importance of other groups as well as of the inseparable interrelation between medical training as a whole and that for pediatrics. Since it was not possible to cover the entire field, the Study confined itself to a survey of the most important segment; namely, the pediatric training of undergraduate medical students and the graduate training of physicians planning to devote their lives to the care and treatment of children. The field work is complete. It consisted of visits to and surveys of the pediatric departments of 70 medical schools in the United States and of 9 in Canada, the latter carried out by the Canadian Society for the Study of Diseases of Children. Analysis of the material has just started. Student Enrollment The problems of student enrollment are not primarily the concern of those engaged in the teaching of pediatrics nor of an organized group of pediatricians, but they are shared equally with other departments and other medical organizations.


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