THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS' PLACE IN AMERICAN MEDICINE

摘要

IT SEEMS timely to attempt a discussion of the Academy's place in American medicine—its place as an organized group in relation to government and state agencies interested in the area of child health and its place in the lower echelons. The purpose of any such discussion should be to define our area more accurately in order to cooperate with other groups most effectively with minimum overlapping of activities. The American Academy of Pediatrics has now grown up into a mature organization and must take its place as an authority—as a leader in the field of public health in its broad sense.The ideas that may be expressed in this discussion are by no means original for I have borrowed freely from experiences with our Academy Study, from a close association with the follow-up committee of the Study, known as the ICH Committee, and from my many friends in the Academy over the country. It is hardly necessary to add that I have had the privilege of reading the history of the Academy by our historian, Dr. Marshall C. Pease, and may unconsciously express his comments as if they had been coined by me.In the first place, the Academy must be the authority in the practical side of child care, especially as it has its application to child health. We must have the "know how." My thought is not difficult to illustrate. The Study of Child Health Services, recently completed, puts the Academy in a position of authority in the area of distribution of medical care for children.