Pursuing a collective dream, all for children

Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment for infants, children and adolescents (1). The word “pediatrics” meaning “healer of children” derives from two Greek words: “pais” (child) and “iatros” (healer). Children are the future and hope of mankind, and the safety, survival and development of children, therefore, are prerequisites for human progress. However, environmental change, genetic variation and unhealthy lifestyle put children in jeopardy. For pediatricians, efforts to promote the health of children have been directed at attending to the needs of particular children and providing them with better medical services (2).

In the new century, one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in pediatric medicine is how sub-specialized pediatric care ties in with the more generalized areas of pediatrics, and how all pediatricians and scientists play their roles in the interdisciplinary fusion, which has broad prospects for developing emerging disciplines (3). With the growth and development of modern medicine, the concept of multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach is getting more and more prevalent. In many children hospitals around the world, pediatric MDTs consist of surgeons, physicians, radiologists, pathologists and researchers with different areas of expertise who work together to provide the highest quality care for children (4). We should tear down some of the brick-and-mortar structure that we have built for pediatric knowledge and make it new message in a digestible format that allows pediatricians to be more of a day-to-day central repository of information.

With an eye to establishing a contemporary academic exchange forum to advance the understanding and practice of pediatric medicine among health care professionals, the new journal Pediatric Medicine (PM) will serve as an international platform for academic discussion and exchange among practitioners to make new discoveries on this important issue. Our mission is to bring pediatricians, at the intersection of clinical practice and translational research, the best researches that provide information in understandable and clinically useful formats, which will ultimately improve health care delivery and promote children health. To these ends, PM welcomes original articles, reviews, editorials, case reports, clinical guidelines, commentaries and perspectives in the field of pediatrics.

Articles published in PM would discuss cutting-edge findings in the field of pediatric medicine, providing current and practical information on prevention, diagnosis and clinical investigations. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to, multimodality therapy, biomarkers, imaging, biology, pathology, and technical advancements related to pediatrics. PM also welcomes contributions pertinent to pediatrics related to various subjects, such as nutrition, surgery, respiration, dentistry, urology, public health, children’s health services, human genetics, psychology, psychiatry, education, sociology, and nursing.

With the contribution of editors, reviewers and authors, PM will fully exchange and share new experiences in disease diagnosis and treatment, show new achievements in translational and clinical research, and conduct a comprehensive and in-depth discussion on hot and difficult issues in the field of pediatrics. Taking the New England Journal of Medicine as the benchmarking, we look forward to witnessing the journal’s growth in the near future.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Pediatric Medicine. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/pm.2018.05.01). GH serves as an editor-in-chief of Pediatric Medicine.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Mahnke CB. The growth and development of a specialty: the history of pediatrics. Clin Pediatr (Phila) 2000;39:705-14. [Crossref] [PubMed]
2. Rushton FE Jr. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Community Health Services. The pediatrician's role in community pediatrics. Pediatrics 2005;115:1092-4. [Crossref] [PubMed]
3. Starmer AJ, Duby JC, Slaw KM, et al. Pediatrics in the year 2020 and beyond: preparing for plausible futures. Pediatrics 2010;126:971-81. [Crossref] [PubMed]
4. Ghazali DA, Darmian-Rafei I, Ragot S, et al. Performance Under Stress Conditions During Multidisciplinary Team Immersive Pediatric Simulations. Pediatr Crit Care Med 2018;19:e270-8. [Crossref]