Six challenges for academic generalists in pediatric education.

Abstract

In this presidential address, I will review some issues that developed in medical education during the 20th century and issue six challenges for academic generalists. The focus is on education, supported by my belief that a characteristic of members of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association (APA) is a love of learning, whether this love is defined as generating new knowledge or as learning something new personally or as both. I am grateful to those from whom I learn, and I have had the benefit of many mentors, those who knowingly or unknowingly blessed me with lessons. I would like to share with you some of the gifts of learning I received from a few of them. Though not in chronologic order, I will start with Alphonso Holguin, the physician who directed the Training Program at the Centers for Disease Control during my two years as chief of the Physician Development Activity. Holguin stressed that the outcomes of training are more important than the process of training and that teachers should be accountable for learning, not just teaching. Moreover, he delighted in provoking me with the question, ‘‘If you think you have a good residency program but can’t specify what you want the graduates of your residency program to do, how will you know if you have succeeded in preparing them?’’ That was 30 years ago. The next three mentors are pediatricians whose clinical skills I admired and tried to emulate. Henry Seidel was the first of many practitioners from whom I learned how much more being a doctor is than just knowing about diseases. He let me be with him in his practice the summer following my first clinical clerkship. I saw what it means to provide comfort and support, even when you yourself are worried. Henry cares about people, and it shows. Milton Markowitz also practiced pediatrics; he then be-