Welcome to the home page of Florida Chapter of The American Academy of Pediatrics/Florida Pediatric Society. The AAP is a national organization composed of over 60,000 pediatricians. There are currently over 2,100 members in Florida. The purpose of the Florida Pediatric Society/Florida Chapter of AAP is to promote the health and welfare of Florida’s children (newborns, infants, children, adolescents and young adults), and to support and promote the pediatricians and pediatric specialists who are the best qualified provider of their healthcare. |
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Medical Spanish for Healthcare Providers
http://www.practicingspanish.com/
This site is a free medical Spanish resource with vocabulary including greetings, history, examination, and everyday speech, all with translation and audio. It is designed to be helpful for a variety of medical personnel. In addition to introducing Spanish medical terms, this site will also aims to improve fluency and cultural competency.
 Rotavirus Vaccines Result in Decreased Hospitalization of Children
Jacksonville, Florida , - A retrospective study in Northeast Florida that looked at the effectiveness of two new Rotavirus vaccines - RotaTeq and Rotarix has shown promising results. Rotavirus is an infection that affects the bowels and is the most common cause of severe diarrhea among infants and children.
The two vaccines were approved in 2008. That same year, after an extensive educational effort by pediatric infectious disease specialists, Northeast Florida pediatricians and primary care providers began to administer the two Rotavirus vaccines to children ages six to 24 months.
In the July 2010 issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Mobeen Rathore, MD, chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology at Wolfson Children's Hospital, and his pediatric infectious disease colleagues with the University of Florida/Jacksonville published a paper on Rotavirus incidence in our area. In their study, they retrospectively analyzed the trend of Rotavirus infection rates among local children, both before and after the introduction of the vaccines.
From 2004 to 2006, an average of 60-70 children year were hospitalized at Wolfson Children's Hospital with Rotavirus, most often because of severe dehydration due to the diarrhea, vomiting and fever associated with the infection. During that time period, thousands more young children had the virus, for which there is no treatment. "The virus must run its course, which takes three to five days," says Dr. Rathore.
"It's estimated by the CDC that Rotavirus costs $1 billion to the U.S. each year, due to hospitalization, emergency room visits, doctors' visits and missed work days for parents caring for children with the infection, which is highly contagious," says Dr. Rathore. "Although Rotavirus is not often deadly in the U.S., no child will escape this infection."
In 2008, Dr. Rathore and his colleagues noted that hospitalizations due to Rotavirus dropped to nine (during which 37,910 doses Rotavirus vaccine were administered) and in 2009, the number dropped to only seven (during which 42,220 doses of the vaccine were distributed) - a tenfold decrease from 2004-2006.
"Rotavirus is worse in the winter, and in Northeast Florida, usually lasts from January through April," says Dr. Rathore. "There didn't seem to be a Rotavirus season this year, which we attribute to the vaccine."
Pediatrician Jerry Bridgham, MD, chief medical officer at Wolfson Children's Hospital, says, "Prior to the use of these vaccines, pediatricians and parents had to wage an annual battle with Rotavirus. Since their use, we have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of children requiring emergency room visits or hospitalization due to Rotavirus. The vaccines represent a real success story in the prevention of severe illness in children."
RotaTeq and Rotarix, given by mouth in the child's doctor's office, offer year-long protection and can be administered any time. "The vaccine is now considered standard of care," says Dr. Rathore. "Parents with children ages six to 24 months should ask for the vaccine if their child hasn't already received it." |
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August 10, 2010 Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children's In the Zone Community Pediatrics Program Celebrates Pediatric Advocacy Day
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children's In the Zone Community Pediatrics Program celebrated Pediatric Advocacy Day on July 20, 2010 with programs aiming to raise the importance of legislative advocacy and engage stakeholders in participation in the legislative process. Advocacy Day programs included Grand Rounds on The Crossroads of Politics and Policy: How to Advocate Without Getting Run Over with widely respected child advocate Jack Levine and the Advocates in Action for Children and Families Forum attended by hospital and residency administrators, pediatric faculty and residents, and members of the institution's Community Leadership Council and the Arnold Palmer Medical Center Foundation board.
The Forum especially highlighted the need for advocates to help inform the implementation of Health Care Reform to best serve children and families, in addition to other pressing legislative concerns. Attendees have provided overwhelmingly positive comments on the programs, indicating that they not only increased their awareness of the importance of legislative advocacy but also increased their confidence such that they were more likely to advocate for children and families in the legislative process. To better provide them with useful tools, attendees will be receiving a follow-up e-mail encouraging them to register for the CapWiz program that will allow them to receive legislative updates, respond to calls for action on pressing child health issues, and be a part of readily mobilized body legislative advocates on child health matters and institutional legislative priorities.
Dr. Vinny Chulani, Director of the In the Zone Community Pediatrics Program comments: "Advocacy is important as it provides a way to move beyond individual solutions, from treating one patient at a time, to create and be part of broader, more systemic change. It has allowed me to use my credibility as a pediatrician and my personal stories to influence change and work with decision makers to create a broader understanding and awareness of the issues that are impacting patients and families for whom I provide care. Pediatric Advocacy Day was about multiplying the mindset and building advocacy capacity and I genuinely think we succeeded". Pediatric Advocacy Day was made possible by grant funding through the Community Pediatrics Training Initiative's Advocacy Training Grants program and the support of the Florida Pediatric Society. |
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August 1, 2010 National Immunization Awareness Month - August, 2010
The Bureau of Immunization is pleased to provide this National Immunization Awareness Month update. The bureau joins the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in recognizing August as National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). The goal of NIAM is to stress the importance of receiving routine, up-to-date immunizations. read more here |
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July 27, 2010 Submitting a Resolution to the AAP Annual Leadership Forum (ALF)
A quick and easy way for a grassroots pediatrician to make a big impact
During a busy day in your work in the field of pediatrics, have you ever thought to yourself, "If I could change one thing it would be ________"? Have you ever felt as if you had no voice, and no chance of changing the system?
Submitting a resolution to the ALF is simple, and is a great way for a busy pediatrician or pediatric subspecialist to make a significant impact. With a small time investment a resolution can go a long way. Resolutions can be submitted pertaining to any aspect of pediatric advocacy, finance, practice, education, or AAP operations.
For information on how to submit a resolution, visit www.aap.org, log in to the member site, and click on "District X" and then look at the bottom of the page where you will see RESOLUTIONS in red font. You will find a link to "Resolution Guidelines" as well as link to a blank "2011 Resolution Template."
District X was the source of a number of successful resolutions at ALF 2010 including two of the top ten ranked resolutions:
- Drs. Ed Zissman, Lisa Cosgrove , Sara Slovin of FL AAP and Drs. Kathryn Cheek and Sally Goza of GA AAP were among authors of the #1 ranked resolution of the 2010 ALF, which asks the AAP to advocate for a national immunization registry where pediatricians could readily access vaccine records from all 50 states for their patients .
- Dr. Joe Zanga of Georgia, was author of a top ten ranked resolution recommending that AAP lifetime certificate holders be listed as Board Certified on the website of the American Board of Pediatrics, without reference to their enrollment status in MOC.
- Puerto Rico Chapter AAP, Dr. Fernando Ysern President, Parity for Puerto Rican Children in Health Care Reform
- Dr. Jeannine Del Pizzo FL AAP Flexible Loan Repayment Options for Residents and Fellows
- Dr. Xavier Sevilla FL AAP AAP Based Chronic Care Registries
The next Annual Leadership Forum will be March 25-27, 2011 in Chicago. Resolutions must be received by the AAP central office by December 1, 2010.
It is also a good idea to submit your resolutions to your state Chapter before that time, to seek Chapter sponsorship, and potentially District X sponsorship. This improves the chances of your resolution being passed at the ALF. I encourage you to put your great ideas in the form of a resolution template, and submit them to your chapter leadership this fall (before October 1).
For questions or any assistance, please contact either Dr. Lisa Cosgrove, FL Chapter president at lisacosgrove@usa.net, or Dr. Marty Michaels, District X Representative to the Chapter Forum Management Committee (CFMC) at mmichaels@optilink.us.
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July 23, 2010 Mental Health Toolkit Released
Addressing Mental Health Concerns in Primary Care: A Clinician's Toolkit
First Edition Now Available!
Addressing Mental Health Concerns in Primary Care brings together a myriad of ready-to-use resources and tools on one instant-access CD-ROM. Look here for screening and assessment instruments, quick-reference care, management advice, step-by-step care plans, time-saving documentation and referral tools, coding aids, billing and payment tips, parent handouts, community resource guides and much more.
Algorithm-based guidance, indexed to CPT codes, outlines a process for care and billing. Succinct clinical tools provide step-by-step decision support for assessment and care of children with the most common mental health symptoms: anxiety, depression, disruptive behavior and aggression, inattention and impulsivity, substance use, learning difficulties, and social-emotional problems in young children. Tools and resources can be printed and distributed as needed. Many will be continuously refreshed through Web-based updates. This toolkit is intended to enhance the quality of mental health care children and adolescents receive, whether in the medical home itself or through the medical home.
The toolkit has been organized according to the chronic care principles and has 5 sections: Community Resources, Health Care Financing, Support for Children and Families, Clinical Information Systems/Delivery System Redesign and Decision Support for Clinicians .
To view a dynamic demo of this comprehensive resource, visit www.aap.org/pcorss/demos/mht.html
For more information: visit the AAP Bookstore at aap.org.
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July 15, 2010 AAP Works to Implement the Health Reform Law
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports the current health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152), and will continue to work with the Administration to ensure that the law is implemented to provide the best possible outcomes for children and the pediatricians who care for them. The AAP will also work with our members and chapters at the state and local level to keep health reform implementation focused on children.
The Academy has established clear priorities for health reform at every stage of the process. Each of these priorities has been addressed in the current health reform law:
- Health care coverage for all children in the United States
- Age-appropriate benefits in a medical home
- Appropriate payment rates and workforce improvements to allow real access to covered services
More information on the AAP Priorities and the latest news regarding reform can be found at: http://aap.org/advocacy/washing/mainpage.htm
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