Updates in Health Supervision Guidelines for Children, Part One

Abstract

<P><CITE>Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents</CITE>, third edition, offers numerous opportunities to improve the quality and delivery of health supervision for infants, children, and adolescents. The authors of the series of articles within this and the next issue of <CITE>Pediatric Annals</CITE> are committed to the highest quality, multidisciplinary health promotion visits for our country’s most valuable resource — our children — in the context of their families and communities. Many authors were involved in the development of <CITE>Bright Futures</CITE>, third edition. The opportunity to work with hundreds of child health professionals who reviewed these guidelines was inspiring. Decreasing the gap between recommended and actual health supervision practices for children in the United States motivated us to embark on this writing project. Our purpose is to challenge all child healthcare professionals to review their own health supervision practices and to provide information and tools to enhance their practice.</P> <h4>ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS</h4> <P>Gregory S. Blaschke, MD, MPH, FAAP, is Captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy. Dr. Blaschke is currently the Medical Director of Simulation and a practicing pediatrician in the Department of Pediatrics, Naval Medical Center San Diego, California (NMCSD). His academic appointment as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics is at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, but he also teaches students and residents at the University of California-San Diego. After earning a B.S. in medical sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, he attended the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his residency training at Naval Hospital, Oakland, California. He taught pediatrics to Family Practice Residents at Naval Hospital Charleston, South Carolina, prior to joining the teaching staff at NMCSD. Between tours at NMCSD, he completed a 3-year General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, which included a clinical emphasis on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. While in fellowship, he obtained a M.P.H. with concentration on Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health and completed the Harvard-Macy Physician Educator program at Harvard’s Medical and Graduate School of Education.</P> <P>As NMCSD Pediatrics Principle-Investigator for the San Diego Community Pediatrics Training Initiative (CPTI), he incorporated public health and community perspectives into both pediatric residency training programs in San Diego County. Dr. Blaschke has been involved in local and national faculty development efforts since 1996, conducting site visits at more than 40 training programs. Projects have focused on teaching and learning for faculty, residents, and programs including all aspects of curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation. He was awarded the 2006 AAP National Education award and is a current member of the AAP’s Committee on Pediatric Education. Dr. Blaschke is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Uniformed Services Section of the AAP, which focuses on faculty development and educational initiatives for more than 700 members. He is a current member of the AAP’s Program Advisory Committee for the Bright Futures Education Center, Pediatric Implementation Project, and Users Group. Prior work with Bright Futures includes membership on the Health Promotion Work Group, which assisted in re-development of the “<CITE>Bright Futures: Pocket Guide</CITE>” and creation of educational materials for <a href="http://www.pediatricsinpractice.org" target="_new">www.pediatricsinpractice.org</a>, now also available in print form from Springer Publishing’s <CITE>Series on Medical Education</CITE>. He is a National Partner for Implementation of a 3-volume text of standardized case-based curriculum, “<CITE>Bright Futures Case Studies for Primary Care Clinicians: Pediatric Education in Growth and Development, Behavior, and Adolescent Health</CITE>,” available at <a href="http://www.pedicases.org" target="_new">www.pedicases.org</a>.</P> <P>Judith S. Shaw, EdD, MPH, RN, is Research Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Executive Director, Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) since its inception in 1999. In addition, she is principal investigator for several federally funded projects designed to improve delivery of health care to children.</P><P>Dr. Shaw earned her nursing degree from the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, and subsequently received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a master’s degree in public health from Boston University, and a doctorate in education from the University of Vermont.</P><P>Nationally, Dr. Shaw is the co-chair of the AAP’s Bright Future Steering Committee and Education Center Project Advisory Committee and co-editor of <CITE>Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents</CITE>, third edition. In 2007, she received the Director’s Award from the Health Resources Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal Child Health Bureau (MCHB) and also Citizen of the Year from the Vermont Medical Society. She was a 2002 Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Primary Care Health Policy Fellow, a member of the Board of Directors of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association from 1999-2002, and currently serves on the Board of Directors at the Stern Center for Language and Learning in Vermont.</P>