Annual Reports

In our nation’s capital, DC Medicaid requires that participating primary care providers offer annual behavioral and mental health screenings for all Medicaid-enrolled children. Despite these mandates, most pediatricians in the District of Columbia were not routinely screening for behavioral or mental health issues at…

FELLOW EARNS MOC CREDIT FOR CREATING MEDICAL RESPONSE TO VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC MINOR SEX TRAFFICKING

Approximately one month into her child abuse pediatrics fellowship at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Dana Kaplan, MD, had a 16-year-old patient in the clinic who had been exchanging sex for money.

“I went to go speak with her, and I didn’t know what to say,” says Dr. Kaplan, who is now Director of Child Abuse and Neglect for the Department of Pediatrics at Staten Island University Hospital. “I didn’t know what was relevant to ask. I didn’t know what was pertinent to provide her medically.”

…

As a pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physician, Manish Shah knows that a seizure or a severe allergic reaction can be deadly for children if they are not treated quickly and appropriately. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration’s Emergency Medical Services for Children program, he led the creation of guidelines for treating children during ambulance transport.

That was just the first step, though. He had to find a way to help paramedics understand and implement those new guidelines. 

“As part of the project, we created nine different guidelines,” says Dr. Shah, Prehospital/State Partnership…

Pediatricians are often the first professionals parents turn to when their child needs behavioral or mental health services — because of their trusting doctor-patient relationship or to avoid the perceived stigma of going to a mental health professional. So when Alexis King’s* middle child needed mental health services, she looked for help where Simon* was already receiving care.

“Unfortunately, our pediatrician was not trained to help us find support,” she says, “and I was left with…

Since 2012, safety interventions are estimated to have spared more than 9,000 children from serious harm caused by medical errors in nearly 130 hospitals across the United States and Canada, reports Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS).1

SPS is a collaborative network of children’s hospitals that share a vision to eliminate serious harm among hospitalized children. The interventions also have saved an estimated $148 million in health care costs.1

“One child harmed is too many,” says Daniel Hyman, MD, Chief Medical and Patient Safety Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado, which is part of the SPS network. “We’re moving closer and closer to zero harm,”…

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) describe the routine and essential activities physicians perform in practice and help program directors determine when trainees can be trusted to perform these activities. Although scales (to determine if trainees can work unsupervised) for EPAs had been proposed, they had not been validated — until now. Two new studies, one involving fellows and the other involving general pediatric residents, shed light on the best uses of EPAs. 

CREATING SUPERVISORY SCALES FOR PEDIATRIC FELLOWS

In a study led by Richard B. Mink, MD, MACM, and conducted by the Subspecialty Pediatrics Investigator Network (SPIN), researchers created…

NEW ASSESSMENT FORMAT TO BECOME DEFAULT OPTION IN 2019 FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL PILOT

The ABP gave its first examination — administered orally before a panel of three distinguished pediatricians — in June 1934. Since then, just as advances in medicine and technology have improved patient care, testing also has evolved, from oral to paper to computer-based exams.

Now, in response to pediatricians’ comments, and in keeping with modern assessment methods, the ABP has explored ways to make the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam better reflect current pediatric practice. The result is Maintenance of Certification Assessment for Pediatrics (MOCA-Peds) — a continuous web-…

When David Tayloe Jr., MD, began practicing pediatrics in 1977, he did not have formal training about childhood behavioral and mental health issues. But when he realized that many of his patients needed help in these areas, he found resources to supplement his knowledge and ways to…

The ABP extended a fond farewell in 2017 to Gail A. McGuinness, MD, and offers a warm welcome in 2018 to Suzanne K. Woods, MD.

Gail A. McGuinness, MD

Dr. McGuinness joined the ABP in 2002 as Senior Vice President of Examination Administration and Credentialing, responsible for exam administration, credentialing, oversight of the subboards, and new subspecialties. Also named Executive Vice President in 2006, she provided redundancy for internal operations activities for the President and CEO. In this role, she served as a voting member on the ABP Board of Directors and the ABP Foundation Board of Directors.

“Dr. McGuinness is an outstanding leader and well-respected…

The 2016 Annual Report from the American Board of Pediatrics is now available. It features:

• updates from the ABP's Family Leadership Advisory Board (FLAG)
• news from collaborative improvement networks
• patient stories
• tools on how diplomates can explain board certification to parents and caregivers
• updates on MOCA-Peds
• and more

Read the 2016 Annual Report:

PDF