Presidential Address: The Ambulatory Pediatric Association, May 1, 1979

Abstract

I consider myself especially privileged to have served as your president for the past year and now to have the honor of addressing the membership at this our 19th annual meeting of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. I feel especially privileged because this association has expressed its confidence in a clinician-teacher with rather meager academic credentials, as might be judged by the memberships of other academic societies. I consider my fellowship in ambulatory pediatrics to have been my four years of private general pediatric practice. Following my "fellowship," Dr Arthur McElfresh, then Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics at St Louis University, accepted me into his Department as an Assistant Professor and Director of Ambulatory Pediatric and Emergency Services. I never expressed my gratitude to him prior to his untimely death in 1977, first, for accepting me into academic pediatrics from private practice, and second, for the guidance and counseling that he provided me. There are issues and concerns that touch each of us involved in academic general pediatrics. In this presentation I will address those that I consider relevant to our membership, indeed, some that I believe critical to the survival of the academic generalist. The question of why there must be generalists on medical school faculties should be addressed. Must all faculty do research, and is it possible to be a good teacher without being involved in original research? Must all inquiry and scholarly contributions be based on reproducible data and numbers, and must one do research in order to qualify as a scholar?