Pediatrics for Underserved Populations (Paperback)

In this realistic and compassionate guide, pediatric professionals will find primary care strategies for promoting better health and developmental outcomes in low-resourced, high-density urban environments, where many of the communities face structural and historical inequities. The contributors acknowledge the challenges faced by children and families in these settings, and the ways that social drivers of health affect many different aspects of health and well-being. But, they also describe the innovative programs developed at their own and other institutions, which have long histories of caring for children at high risk for poor long-term health outcomes. The editors draw on the expertise of academic pediatricians who have found ways to address social determinants of health with creative, clinic-based support for families.

The essays, each written by expert contributors, are built into a structure that introduces the topic, provides concrete exam room solutions, and engages pediatric professionals to advocate for long-term solutions to the overarching societal problems that contributor to poor health outcomes for children. Pediatrics for Underserved Populations also includes the last published piece by AAP past president Benard P. Dreyer, M.D., FAAP, to whom the volume is dedicated in honor of his career-long advocacy for children who are at-risk. 

Perri Klass, MD, FAAP, is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, where she directs the Minor in Medical Humanities, and practices pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital. She is the National Medical Director of Reach Out and Read. Her books include The Best Medicine: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future, Quirky Kids: Understanding and Supporting Your Child with Developmental Differences, coauthored with Dr. Eileen Costello, Every Mother is a Daughter: the Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen, coauthored with her mother, and Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor. She lives in New York City.

Eileen Costello, MD, FAAP, is a clinical professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and the former chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, where she directed the primary care clinic and the SOFAR (Supporting Our Families through Addiction and Recovery) program. She is currently the medical director at Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, where she oversees the medical care of children in the child welfare system. She lives in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Terri McFadden, MD, MPH, FAAP is a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Clinical Initiatives for PARTNERS for Equity in Child and Adolescent Health.  She is a former medical director for the primary care service at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding and serves as the current medical director of Reach Out and Read Georgia. She lives in Atlanta, GA.