Region 1
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec
February 2010 Newsletter Article
Various illustrious members of Region I met on October 23rd in Sturbridge, MA. The Publick House hosted our group and gave us the usual excellent treatment. The cozy setting gave us license to ask questions and have discussions through many of the excellent presentations we heard.
Allen Hsaio, MD, an Assistant Professor and Chief Medical Information Officer at Yale was the first to speak. He shared his expertise on electronic health records, guiding us through the alphabet soup of the government's plans. The room was abuzz with a spirited discussion around the implications of EHRs, particularly outcomes, education, and ethics. This set the tone for the rest of the day.
Danielle Laraque, APA president, gave an inspiring talk about the state of the APA. She noted that the 50th Anniversary of the APA gives us a chance to reflect on its role in "The House of Pediatrics." She spoke of the APA's desire to meet the needs of its members, and the ways in which it is going about trying to accomplish these goals. Our rowdy discussion for this hour got under way with her question: Do our visions/core values somehow differentiate us from other pediatric groups? If so, how?
We then had some research discussions. Roxanne Almas, from UMass Worcester spoke to us about her research with Project STRIVE: Support and Train Refugees and Immigrants in Vaccine Education. This program gives HPV vaccine education for refugee women, who are mandated to receive this vaccine in order to receive a green card. She has led 5 informational sessions about this vaccination, and reported to us about the questions that were asked of the leaders.
Chris Stille gave us an update on the on goings at UMass, where there are 12 general peds, two of whom do a significant amount of academic work. Chris himself does a lot of work on CSHCN, and in July 2009 attended a joint APA-SGIM-STFM conference in Washington DC to discuss the policy-relevant research agenda for the Patient and Family Centered Medical Home with many national APA luminaries. The meeting served as a catalyst for an APA Medical Home Policy Statement, currently under construction. Katie Walsh is doing a lot of work on outpatient patient safety/medication errors, currently focusing on kids with complex medical conditions. David Keller is currently having the time of his life as an RWJ health policy fellow in DC. From a residency education standpoint, Bev Nazarian, a clinician-educator, recently published the results of a survey about resident education about medical home in MA. Trish McQuilkin is leading UMass's involvement in teaching pediatrics to residents and medical students in Liberia. And a postscript--Roxanne Almas, PL2, was just accepted as an APA New Century Scholar.
David Link from MGH spoke about his work on the ADHD registry. He noted that guidelines have been around for ADHD since 2001/2004, but it doesn't seem that they've had a dramatic impact on management. Thus, the question is: does an ADHD registry promote guideline adherence? He'll be getting data from the medical record, and looks forward to getting survey data and outcomes from the schools as well in the next phase.
Our Keynote speaker was Lynda Young, a practicing pediatrician in Worcester, MA, a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Community Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and currently the Vice-President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Dr. Young guided us through Massachusetts’ health care scene, and gave us detail about the current national health care reform legislation before congress. The details about pediatric issues were impeccable, and we were riveted! Discussion was again vibrant and interesting.
Following this, we had a short discussion by Judy Shaw, including, among a number of items, review of the state of Bright Futures.
WELCOME TO THE FOLLOWING NEW MEMBERS
By State:
Connectitcut : Lindsay Johnston, MD, (Yale)
Massachusetts: Tamara Chang, MD (UMASS), Katharine Garvey, MD (Harvard), Sarah Goff, MD (Baystate), Mary Beth Gordon, MD (Harvard), Julie Myers, MD (UMASS), Mayra Tisminetzky, PhD, MPH (UMASS),
Rhode Island: Carol Baum, MD (Brown), Diane DerMarderosian, MD (Brown), Ana Catarina Garnecho, MD (Brown), Christopher Merritt, MD, MPH (Brown)
Vermont: Linda Hazard, MS (UVM), Elizabeth Lambert, MD (UVM)
Canada: Evelyn Constantin, MD (McGill)
Region Co-chair,
Bruce Bernstein
bbernste@stfranciscare.org
Previous Newsletter Articles
Region I Co-Chairs:
St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center
114 Woodland Street
Hartford,CT06105
Phone: (860) 714-5019
Fax: (860) 714-8054
bbernste@stfranciscare.org
Ada Fenick, MD
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar St
New Haven,CT06520-8064
Phone: (203) 397-3789
Fax: (203) 785-3932
ada.fenick@yale.edu
