PERIODICALLY, it appears to be appropriate and perhaps even necessary to pause for a moment to consider the question, "Where are we going and by what means are we moving along our course?" In the case of the Academy, the answers are to be found in a consideration of the present structure and activities of the components of the group. A very brief, even categorical review of the committees, liaison representatives and official subdivisions will tell us much, and will serve to remind us that we are participants in a great vital program dedicated to the health and welfare of children.
Let us first consider the aims and activities of the various committees of the Academy. In the past few years, an increasing awareness of loss of child life through accidents has prompted the Committee on Accident Prevention to survey the causes and to initiate a program of prevention which has received nationwide attention.
Unpleasant though it may be to contemplate the prospect of a world engaged in another holocaust of war, the need for preparedness has been recognized at all levels of our civil structure, and in consonance with the emphasis on national alertness, the Academy has established a Committee whose purpose it is to compile information as to the possible needs of children in wartime and the role that pediatricians can play in satisfying those needs, if the occasion demands it.
During the lives of most of us, contagious and infectious diseases have become increasingly less common and less severe. In order that the most effective means of controlling, as well as treating, these diseases may be available to all, the Committee on Control of Infectious Diseases has issued and, at intervals, has revised a manual that contains the latest and most reliable information that can be supplied by a panel of experts in the field.
