Biomedical subjects
Desmond P Kelly
Publications and source records attributed to Desmond P Kelly.
Identifying school performance problems in the pediatric office.
The AAP has underscored the role and responsibility of pediatricians in screening their patients for developmental and learning problems and working with parents, schools, and other professionals to ensure that students with these problems receive appropriate educational and therapeutic interventions. We have proposed a model that is time-efficient and can be tailored to the level of interest and experience of the pediatrician. At a minimum, the primary care physician should elicit any parental concerns about school performance, affirm these, and direct the student and parents to appropriate resources in the community for further evaluation and intervention as necessary. Pediatricians who wish to understand more fully the nature and underpinnings of their patients' learning difficulties can formulate a preliminary diagnosis and develop a plan for treatment using a structured system of information gathering that can be combined with information about the child's medical status and supplemented by brief direct testing in the office setting. By following these approaches, primary care pediatricians can provide comprehensive care for their patients and their families in their medical home and also can derive considerable professional satisfaction.
Developmental and behavioral pediatric practice patterns and implications for the workforce: results of the Future of Pediatric Education II Survey of Sections Project.
A survey of developmental-behavioral pediatricians was conducted to obtain data and insights on their current practice. As part of the Future of Pediatric Education (FOPE) II Survey of Sections Project, questionnaires were sent to individuals who were most likely to represent those pediatricians engaged in the subspecialty of developmental-behavioral pediatrics. Four groups of physicians were compared within the survey: developmental-behavioral fellowship group (n = 272), developmental disabilities fellowship group (n = 139), general academic pediatrics or other fellowship group (n = 57), and a nonfellowship group (n = 224). A majority of respondents indicated a need for an increased number of subspecialists in developmental-behavioral pediatrics in their community during the next 3 to 5 years. There were significant differences in the survey results of a variety of practice issues between those who had and had not received formal fellowship training. The survey data illustrate a developmental-behavioral pediatrician workforce that is becoming increasingly fellowship trained, receiving more referrals, and encountering constraints to seeing more patients in an era of declining reimbursement for services. To overcome these obstacles, stakeholders in child health, including health care payers, will need to be educated about the unique skills and clinical expertise of physicians in developmental-behavioral pediatrics and neurodevelopmental disabilities.