The art of medicine: Adolescent health comes of age

摘要

My short career has coincided with a shift in how adolescent health is viewed. As a medical student in the 1990s, adolescents were usually described in terms of deficit: they were risktakers, difficult, poorly compliant, or non-attenders. Improving adolescent health was generally regarded as "a challenge for society". During my medical training, I completed a research year atthe Centre for Adolescent Health in Melbourne, Australia. It sparked an interest in research, and I soon became fluent in the incentives to invest in the immediate health needs of adolescents. It has, however, taken me much longer to recognise the tremendous opportunities for public health that adolescence provides.