How will the network engage a broad swath of hospitalists? By selecting research questions important to public health and anticipating a changing clinical environment, we hope to enhance the interest and relevance of an SHM research network. The SHM Research Committee will focus on how best to design a research network that is practical and useful for hospital medicine researchers and enable straightforward studies. A main goal will be promoting visibility for investigators and coordinators through opportunities for authorship and presentation of results at national meetings.
Healthcare reform has become a hot political issue again—more than a year before the presidential election. All three leading Democratic candidates (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards) have proposed some sort of a central institute to assess treatment options and disseminate research and information to providers. Hospitalists (as generalists and team leaders in an arena where approximately 30% of the healthcare dollar is spent) are a key part of any national solution.
Whether this research requires a catalyst such as a hospitalist network—and what that network would look like—remains to be seen. The SHM Research Committee is considering mechanisms to provide research mentorship, training, and career development, and weighing the best use of resources. We count on your input. Contact Carolyn Brennan, director of research program development for SHM, at [email protected] for more information or to get involved. TH
SHM Behind the Scenes
PRIS updates in Salt Lake City
By Todd Von Deak
Each year, one of the premier events in pediatric hospital medicine is a summer conference presented by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Ambulatory Pediatric Association (APA), and SHM. This year’s conference, held last month in Salt Lake City under the lead sponsorship of the AAP, was no exception.
More than 300 pediatric hospitalists, medical directors, residents, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants came together for four days to network, get answers, and learn from colleagues at 30 sessions. Charlie Homer, CEO of the National Institute for Children’s HealthCare Quality in Cambridge, Mass., was the keynote speaker. Dr. Homer highlighted the roles hospitalists can and must play to improve children’s health, and challenged all present to create a dashboard that includes quality indicators for care that is efficient, equitable, evidence-based, safe, and family-centered.
Leaders from the AAP, APA, and SHM opened the morning sessions the next day with brief presentations that highlighted the role of pediatric hospitalists in each organization, and the potential to work together to continue to develop pediatric hospital medicine and advance the care of hospitalized children. Participants were then free to choose from more than 16 sessions ranging from clinical issues such as the management of apparent life-threatening events and appropriate maintenance IV fluids, to practice management (Coding 101 and 201), quality improvement, and resident teaching and research.
Capping the schedule of events was a luncheon presentation from Christopher P. Landrigan, MD, director of the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network. He presented “PRIS Update: The Need for Collaborative Hospitalist Research in 2007.” PRIS is an independent collaborative entity established by the same organizations that sponsor the Salt Lake City conference and is designed to allow for collaborative study of key questions in inpatient pediatrics.
Linda Snelling, MD, inpatient director and chief of pediatric critical care at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I., followed with a talk on how pediatric hospitalists can effectively negotiate for themselves and the field. Her key insights included, “ ‘No.’ is a complete sentence.”