THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: ACADEMY STUDY OF THE DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE TO CHILDREN

Abstract

The delivery of health care has become one of the most talked about subjects in medical circles in recent years. Governmental agencies, labor groups, insurance companies, and consumer groups also have become concerned about it. The Brookings Institution began a short series of public policy conferences for physicians in the fall of 1967, their first venture into the field of health. The delivery of care has been discussed from many standpoints in all of them. Within the Academy we have become increasingly aware of the shortcomings of our present "system" of medical practice as it relates to children. It is not that the system is altogether bad. It seems that primarily there are too few pediatricians and family physicians and the ones available are not well distributed. Certain aspects of the investigation of the problems of practice have been and are being studied by the Council on Pediatric Practice, which has been in existence since 1964. The urgency and necessity of doing even more was pointed out in the Spring of 1967 by the report of an ad hoc committee of the Executive Board, the chairman of which was Dr. John MacQueen. This then led to the appointment of an ad hoc committee of the Academy to study means of approaching this complex problem. This committee recommended a detailed investigation which would require the services of a chairman who was experienced and who could devote at least one half of his time to it. Dr. Carl Fischer of Philadelphia was selected for this position.