Network News Excerpts
(EXCERPTS TAKEN FROM THE FALL 2002
EDITION OF THE NETWORK NEWS)
From the Director
By Mort Wasserman, MD, MPH
Dissemination to the Nation (and Beyond)
In its early years, PROS directed its energies to the not-so-simple
tasks of designing and conducting research to be conducted in hundreds
of pediatric practices around the country and publishing study results.
Yet, achieving the PROS mission - to improve the health of children
by conducting collaborative practice-based research to enhance primary
care practice - entails even more than designing, conducting, and publishing
studies of child health care. It means assuring that a broad range of
pediatric practitioners learn about the results of PROS studies so that
they can use them to improve children's health.
At a 1998 retreat, the PROS Steering Committee made dissemination a
primary network function. A PROS task force led by Steering Committee
member and Wyoming Coordinator Jim Little and AAP Director of Primary
Care Research Eric Slora has developed a diversified strategy to disseminate
PROS findings. The strategy reaches out both to pediatric practitioners
in practice and the leadership of the AAP and employs both traditional
print media and newer electronic methods.
Reaching out to practitioners involves employing dissemination vehicles
with the greatest practitioner exposure. Twelve of 31 PROS articles
have been published in Pediatrics, and therefore have reached all AAP
practitioners. However, an article reaching a practitioner is one thing
and being read by a practitioner is another. To address the 60% of articles
published elsewhere and also account for the fact that AAP practitioners
can't possibly read all of the articles that they see, we have adopted
a second print strategy. Recent data indicate that half of all AAP practitioners
regularly read the monthly AAP News research column. Over the past 18
months, PROS has published four pieces discussing key PROS findings
in the AAP News research column. These pieces reference each study's
published articles, allowing practitioners to go to the source. Additional
regular pieces are planned.
Getting the word out to the AAP's policy-making groups (committees and
sections) and its regional leadership (chapter presidents) has been
a second thrust of the PROS dissemination strategy. To this end, PROS
sends easily digestible summaries of studies, accompanied by article
reprints, to relevant committees and sections (depending on the topic
of the study) so that a full understanding of the study and its context
is available to committee and section leadership. In addition, dissemination
now has been extended to the AAP's chapter structure, with the leadership
in each chapter receiving summaries and article reprints similar to
those sent to committee and section leadership.
Finally, PROS continues to use its listerv, PROS-Net, and its Web page,
www.aap.org/pros/, to publicize results from studies. The page includes
both a bibliography list with links to articles and a section called
"PROS Pearls," offering brief summaries of study results.
The new wrinkle with respect to the Web is that a PROS logo will soon
appear on the main AAP Web page www.aap.org/, which will provide anyone
who visits the AAP page with a direct link to the PROS site.
In summary, PROS is going to great lengths to disseminate the results
of its studies to pediatric practitioners. Please send any additional
ideas that you may have for spreading the word to me at rwasserman@aap.org.
From The Steering Committee Chair
By Gordon Glade, MD
Last Words from a Parting Steering Committee Chair
When I forgot to wake up my 14-year-old son for church this morning,
he asked for an explanation. I wondered, "Who's the parent here?"
I then explained that from now on he was to be totally responsible for
getting himself up and out the door on time every morning, after all
he had an alarm clock. He complained, "But Dad, you always wake
me up." That's true. I do it because I really like that few minutes
every morning gently patting him and talking to him until his adolescent
mind and body start moving. But NO MORE. I said, "Your Dad is aging
and senile and can no longer be depended on to take care of such things."
I've been bothered all day by the realization that my son's past needing
me at least for that early morning waking ritual. So if that phase is
over, what have I learned from all this time with Geoff. Most importantly
that this clever boy of few words came with a distinct personality and
a load of talent programmed differently than I thought my third son
would be and that I better make sure that I am more a help than a hindrance
to him.
Well, if that phase of my life is over, then at least there always is
PROS. But wait, that's changed too. I am out of an official PROS job.
So what have I learned from 32 PROS Chapter Coordinators Meetings in
a row? Most importantly that America has dozens of bright pediatricians
with unique passions all centered around the health and welfare of children--many
people who are thinking hard to find ways to ask better questions, detect
and handle health problems more efficiently, commit fewer mistakes,
support new moms better, immunize more perfectly, and improve the way
we care for chronic diseases like asthma. Furthermore, PROS projects
have cultivated curiosity and capability in many PROS practitioners
to do research in their own offices to discover ways to give better
care.
I cannot think of any activity outside of the fine tuning of my practice
that comes with the day-to-day interaction of seeing patients that has
had more impact on my professional life than PROS. I thank the AAP and
the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for supporting primary care pediatricians
in the ambitious but important work of primary care research for children.
I thank the selfless practitioners and their staffs in the trenches
who collect data. I thank the researchers that bring their academic
skills to PROS and trust our organization to answer health care questions
outside of the safe and traditional medical centers. I thank the awesome
PROS staff and Mort Wasserman, who has pushed me and inspired me. I
thank the chapter coordinators who are at the heart of everything that
PROS does.
Americans are rightfully reevaluating priorities now. I realize that
I was busy doing some unimportant things or as Neal Maxwell said, "in
the thick of thin things." Primary care research, especially PROS
projects that have been completed and those that are presently funded,
will help us focus our professional time on the things that matter most
for the health of children. Looking forward to the chance to do the
next PROS project in my office in American Fork, UT.
View Prior Network News Excerpts:
