Fall 1998

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1998 Award Recipients

Robert Coles, M.D.
Stanford B. Friedman, M.D.

1997 Award Recipients

William Harris, Ph.D.
Morris Wessel, M.D. FAAP

Special Presentation

Marshall Klaus, M.D. FAAP:
Perinatal Care in the 21st Century

See Editor's Note, January 1999

Board Certification Update

by Ellen Perrin, M.D., Worcester, MA
President, Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Our efforts to obtain approval from the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) for Board certification in developmental-behavioral pediatrics have been in process for a long time already. Along the way, the AAP Section has been very helpful in demonstrating the support of the pediatric community for this effort. The initial challenge was to reassure the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) that developmental-behavioral pediatrics does not represent a significant overlap with general pediatrics, and that there is broad support for developmental-behavioral pediatrics within the general pediatrics community. Thank you all very much for the letters you wrote to the ABP at that time; they had a significant impact on the Board's support for the effort. Since that time, the ABP has become convinced of the importance of subcertification, approved our application, and submitted it to the ABMS in August 1997.

The ABP also continues to remain supportive of the application for subspecialty certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities, which it also has approved and sent on to the ABMS. Both proposals have passed their "first reading" by the Committee on Certification (COCERT) of the ABMS. The two proposals differ significantly in their structure and also in their relationship to the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). The ABPN is a co-sponsor (with the ABP) of the proposal in neurodevelopmental disabilities. People graduating from this six-year program will have had two years of a general pediatrics residency, two years of neurology, and two years of developmental disabilities training. They will be eligible for triple Boards (in pediatrics, child neurology, and neurodevelopmental disabilities). In contrast, a person graduating from the six-year program in developmental-behavioral pediatrics will have completed a three-year general pediatrics residency and a three-year fellowship in developmental-behavioral pediatrics, which will include at least one year of research time. They will be eligible for Board certification in pediatrics and in DBP. This latter proposal is not co-sponsored by the ABPN.

Throughout the process, the ABPN has strongly opposed the proposal in developmental-behavioral pediatrics, stating that it is concerned about the significant degree of overlap between the training and practice of child psychiatry and the training and practice of developmental-behavioral pediatrics. On the other hand, they want to be sure that there will be systematic and substantial contributions from child and adolescent psychiatry and from child neurology to standardized training in developmental-behavioral pediatrics. While we have never disagreed with this in principle, "the devil has been in the details." We continue to try hard to work out these differences with the ABPN. We hope to reassure them that we are not, in fact, attempting to compete with child psychiatrists, but to create a different sort of professional who would collaborate with child psychiatrists and with child neurologists, as well as with general pediatricians.

Our attempts to work out these differences continue, although they have been unsuccessful so far. A revised application that addresses a number of the concerns voiced by the ABPN and others was submitted to the ABMS in June. A "working group" is currently assembled and will meet in September in a further effort to work out a compromise solution. The "second reading" of both the neurodevelopmental disabilities and the developmental-behavioral pediatrics proposals are currently scheduled for the March 1999 meeting of the ABMS.

One of the very gratifying and significant successes in this long process has been the unanimous support we have received from the pediatric community. In addition to the support of general pediatricians (both in practice and in academic pediatrics), we have achieved unanimous support from all the academic pediatric organizations (APA, APS, SPR), as well as from the AAP. In addition, the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairpeople has also supported our proposal with enthusiasm. A small but noteworthy minority of child and adolescent psychiatrists have also had the courage to speak out in opposition to the official position of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology to support our application. We very much appreciate their support and courage and hope that they will help to reassure their professional organizations that developmental-behavioral pediatrics has more to offer by way of collaboration than it threatens by way of competition.

Thank you very much again for your strong support. We will continue to do all we can to bring this application to a successful conclusion.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note (January 22, 1999)
Henry L. Shapiro, M.D. FAAP

The prospects for Board Certification in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics continues to be promising. Let me quote from Noreen Spota, the Administrative Director of the Society:

"There is good news to report at the start of 1999. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has not yet officially approved certification in DBP. However, the objection mounted by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology was withdrawn in November, which means that the last barrier to official approval of DBP certification has been removed. The next meeting of the ABMS will take place on March 17-18, 1999 and all signs point to approval of DBP certification at that meeting. There has also been a proposal for certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities (ND) which is also being presented for its second and final reading at the next ABMS meeting. (The ND proposal has been in the works for longer than the DBP proposal, but it was held up so that both proposals could be considered by the ABMS in tandem.) The next step is to develop questions for a written DBP certification exam, a process which is expected to take approximately three years."