Adolescence and the way forward.

Adolescence is often seen as a period of turmoil redefinitions and  readjustment, of having to cut the mental and social umbilical cord, of coming to terms with sexuality and assuming greater responsibility for ones life. However in recent years the issue of adolescence was the focus of another kind of jostling, namely that of ownership between paediatrics and internal medicine. At last it appears that the local authorities are taking the cue from experience elsewhere and have been giving peadiatricans greater responsibility in adolescent issues. This year a scholarship was awarded to a paediatrican to specialise in adolescent medicine.

The MPA has now set up a subcommittee under Dr Nazeli Hamzah to look into this area, with a stress of issues related to physical health and diseases of  lifestyle. It is hoped that we can implement preventive strategies that will bear fruit in years to come. This move appears to coincide with regional concerns. In the forthcoming ASEAN Paediatric Federation meeting in Bali, all member countries have been invited to nominate speakers for a plenary session related to adolescence. Hopefully the many colleagues who have worked so hard to change the mindset of the policy makers will now contribute their ideas and energy to the new subcommittee.

The last year has witnessed many workshops and brainstorming sessions related to the future developments in pediatrics. The need to create a pool of well rounded general pediatricians while not neglecting subspeciality development is an area of concern for all. In the same vein we need to select the right way forward in order to ensure a balanced growth of services. There are so many competing areas – prenatal genetics and screening for inborn errors of metabolism, the care of the child with special needs, epilepsy surgery, cardiac surgery, chelation for thalessimics, new vaccinations to name a few. In reality there is a scarcity of resources both of manpower and funding and every area is important for the affected children and their parents. The MPA can be a useful forum for all pediatricians to make their contribution in helping planners draw up priorities. We now have a website to facilitate such an exchange of ideas, hopefully substantiated by data.

Our founding fathers got it right when they stressed on primary health and primary education. They were not distracted by the lure of building glamorous hospitals for a few to the neglect of basic care for all. We must build on this tradition.

The latest issue of the MJPCH is out. This has been a long time in coming and I dare say the members have only themselves to blame. The editor has been virtually begging for articles. I would like to appeal to all those who presented free papers at the 23^rd MPA congress in Kuantan to write up their work for publication. With everybody’s support we should be able to bring out 2 issues a year qualifying us for indexing with Medline and similar bodies. If we want a journal that we can be proud of we all have to work on it!