Premature birth (defined as delivery before 37 weeks gestation) and low birthweight (below 2,500 grams) are major health problems in the United States. Infants in these categories account for 75 per cent of neonatal deaths and 50 per cent of deaths in the first year of life. Survivors contribute disproportionately to the pool of handicapped…

Examines how, as medical advances drastically reduced infant and child mortality rates, the field of pediatrics expanded from singular concern with treating children's diseases to include involvement in managing troublesome behavior. Considers the continued involvement of pediatricians in ministering to the psychosocial and behavioral needs of…

Surveys were mailed to a sample of Michigan internists and family practitioners (N=2060). This study examined influences on (1) how confident physicians feel about treating a particular problem, (2) where they look for assistance and advice, and (3) what level of continued involvement in the patient's care they prefer. (MLW)

This paper describes a model for the involvement of primary health care personnel in the identification and treatment of developmental disabilities as a part of early childhood intervention programs. The integrated multidisciplinary model is divided into four stages. During the first stage an assignment of prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal risk…

The Healthy Steps for Young Children program is a national initiative developed by pediatricians from Boston University in collaboration with professionals from the Commonwealth Fund. This program for families with young children (birth to 3 years of age) provides developmentally--oriented services within pediatric primary care through addition of…

The large inflow of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) into the U.S. is cited and four issues discussed. They are: (1) the belief that the FMG is less qualified than the U.S. medical graduate and thus contributes to the decline in quality of medical care; (2) the loss of scarce manpower from less developed countries that have greater needs than the…

The Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS) is designed to combine the selection of a heterogeneous class without significant change in the educational environment as designed for a homogeneous class. The program is an attempt to equalize the allocation of resources of the medical profession and to provide primary care physicians to underserved areas.…

Three factors that will have major effects on the medical cost quality debate are: industrial and governmental policy in regard to health-related expenditures, an aging population, and societal attitudes towards competition in the health care system. Approaches to conflict resolution are offered. (MLW)

In California, school districts are categorized as public health screening centers and are required to have school doctors or school nurse practitioners provide complete physical examination services. A survey was conducted in a school district with an enrollment of about 12,000 students to determine parental attitudes toward this service, and…

Prepaid group practice as a concept for providing health care is now over 25 years old in the nation and in New York City. It has overcome initial opposition by the medical profession and has been adopted by government as a healthy strategy under the acronym HMO or "Health Maintenance Organization". The author asserts that on two major…

Relationships among variables that may predict medical school graduates who will be licensed, will practice primary care medicine, and will select Ohio and southwestern Ohio as the location of their practice were evaluated with the 1980 initial graduating class of the Wright State University School of Medicine, Ohio. The following statistical…

This paper argues that there is a critical need to reframe the fundamental policy questions which fragment early childhood intervention services and health care, in order to construct an integrated system of comprehensive services that includes basic health care and developmental support for all children and their families and that provides…

The Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, held in Washington City in the autumn of 1912, was a notable event in the history of sanitation and in the discussion of the conditions of the physical and mental health of the people. The exhibition held in connection with the congress was instructive in many ways, and contained much…