Meetings and Transition

As I get up more in age and have settled into my practice, I find myself wanting to find more meaningful purpose to helping children. Yes, the day in and day out practice of peds has some good qulity points like helping the whole girls soccer team after they won the state and got norovirus on the way home on the bus. That felt really good to be able to help. But now, I am trying to help shape pediatrics for the future. I am involved in PROS which stands for Pediatric Research in Office Practice and is a network of pediatricians in practice that will do meaningful projects that will affect their practice. I am doing one now that counsels kids in the 85%-97% of BMI to see if the counseling can help them get healthier. I also am on the steering committee of QUIIN which is the Quality Improvement and Innovation network and have worked on a couple of their projects, Safe and Healthy Beginnings, (newborn bilirubin) and Newborn Screening(ACT sheets). They seem to overlap in what goes on and the QUIIN helps to meet the Mantainence of Certification requirements for the American Board of Pediatrics. What amazes me is how organized I have to be to get it all done, practice, be a mom, a wife and a partner in my practice. In the long run, after spending PROM weekend with my teenager, I realize, I really do want to make a difference and if it is done one meeting or study at a time, then it is worth it foor my kids kids. My sons and their wives and children will look back and remember that mom did it all for us