PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 1971

Abstract

Iwould like to begin this address with a summary of activities and accomplishments during the past year, which, in my opinion, are new or of particular significance for the Academy and its Fellows, and for the health and welfare of children. In doing so, many, if not most, of our organization's established activities and functions will be ignored, not because they are unimportant, but because you are all well acquainted with them and their value. Our Report on the Delivery of Health Care to Children has finally gone to the printer and will hopefully be in your hands by the end of the calendar year. Implementation of some of its recommendations is already under way, and plans are being made to implement the others. A policy and statement on national health insurance has been completed and issued after 3 years of intensive effort. While it satisfies neither the advocates of total socialization of medical care, nor the advocates of the status quo, I believe that it does represent a view of the majority of our membership that changes must be made, that we must maintain an ability to influence these changes, and that the changes must provide options, flexibility, appropriate incentives, and economic feasibility for both the consumer and the deliverer of health care. Under Academy leadership and sponsorship a Joint Committee on Quality Assurance of Child Health Care has been formed. Financed by a large federal grant, it will develop and test methods designed to assure the quality of child health care.