Pediatric Neurology Far From Home: Globalization, Guidelines, and Standards of Care

Abstract

As the demand for, and the relative paucity of, our services continues to grow, pediatric neurologists around the world are increasingly moved to consider the educational needs of our colleagues in primary practice: how can we help them to use our services effectively by referring appropriately? How can we guide them to carry out patient education for common problems when education is the main intervention? How generalizable are the educational needs relating to pediatric neurology referral from one region to another? These questions formed part of the impetus for a Fulbright Scholar Project by the authors in Yerevan, Armenia. The twentieth century history of the Armenian nation tells of one existential challenge after anotherdgenocide, massive emigration, cultural repression during Soviet times, a massive earthquake. In addition to being the ancestral home to one of the author’s “grandparents-in-law,” Armenia’s interest lay in its 1000-year-old history of religion, music, and medicine at a crossroaddthe Silk Road, to be exactdof Eastern and Western societies. As an institution with over one millenium of history behind it, Armenian medicine, like the Armenian people, possesses an extraordinary adaptability and resilience. Armenian Pediatric Neurology began in the 1970s when the Ministry of Health appointed the late Dr. Juletta Aylamazyan as the first chief child neurologist. Dr. Aylamazyan trained most of the approximately 25 pediatric neurologists