Community Pediatrics: Can It Be Taught? Can It Be Practiced?

The report of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Community Health in the June 1999 issue of Pediatrics (pages 1304–1306) provides a definition of Community Pediatrics that is much needed. Community Pediatrics is more than practice in the community. Its focus is on all children, not merely those who appear in one's practice. It also recognizes that health is the result of more than medical care and that partnerships with public health and other professions that serve children, cultural sensitivity, and advocacy for broader services are required to achieve optimal health for all. Some will argue that it is enough for a pediatrician to provide excellent care to those children who come to their practice, and I agree that such a goal is itself demanding. But there is a contagious aspect to many of the social and behavioral problems—injuries, chemical dependency, sexual diseases and unplanned pregnancies, and school failure—that is not dissimilar to the contagious aspect of infectious disease …