Dr. Paul Dworkin is the Executive Vice President for Community Child Health at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. For 15 years, he previously served as physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s and chair of Pediatrics at UCONN. Dr. Dworkin’s interests are at the interface among child development, child health services, and child health policy.
Dr. Dworkin’s honors include teaching awards, visiting professorships, and named lectureships. He was the editor of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics from 1997-2002 and was a member of the first entering class of the Academy of Distinguished Educators at the UCONN School of Medicine. Dr. Dworkin has served on the boards of numerous community-based organizations and recently completed his tenure as chair of the board of the Urban League of Greater Hartford.
[00:01] Dr. Paul Dworkin Shares His Story With Us
- Paul talks about his journey into the pediatrics space
- What’s his belief about the science of development and behavior?
[05:19] Biology of Adversity
- Questions to ponder on about child health services
- The driving factors that can make or break a pediatrician
- Paul talks about the “biology of adversity”
- The basic premises of delivering child health services
- How to encourage a family-led agenda in a child health context
[15:13] The Decade of the Brain
- The extremely important red flags to watch out for according to Paul
- The power of surveillance and screening in detecting problems in the child
- Assumptions about children that you should hear right now
- Paul reveals the story behind their pilot study on children’s health
- What’s the study about?
[26:47] Proactive Approach in Child Health Interventions
- All relevant sectors should be consulted in crafting child health interventions
- Here’s why
- 2 problems that healthcare providers encounter everyday
- Why being proactive in checking up on children is a must
[36:23] Reach Out and Read
- We have an interesting exchange about the Reach Out and Read program
- Specific calculations to drive support to healthcare investments
- Paul gives us a sneak peek on how they replicated the Reach Out and Read strategy
- How to scale the existing systems and processes we have right now
[48:25] Politics and Healthcare
- How to make sure that investments in healthcare will generate positive outcomes
- The case for prioritizing child health services transformation
- Data is important but should be relevant and appropriate
- Listen to our exchange
- Is there a correlation between political colors and child health services?
[01:01:07] Paul’s Advice for Resident Pediatricians
- Lack of coordination among the supposed coordinators create a bottleneck
- What kind of bottleneck and how to resolve it?
- Here’s Paul’s message for healthcare providers today
- Don’t miss his advice for his resident self!
[01:12:05] Closing Segment
- Final takeaways:
- Actionable steps for child health reform
- Big ideas to consider such as child health promotion instead of prevention
- Decade of Brain
- Impacts of poverty and racism to children
- Problems that providers encounter daily
- Cross-sectoral efforts are the ways to go
- “Help Me Grow,” a bold strategy that has been implemented for children
- 4 steps of the “Help Me Grow” model
- Reach Out and Read Program
- Should we expect a return on investment in our healthcare projects?
- Stop paying attention to the wrong metrics
- Anticipatory guidelines and support
- Big changes feel overwhelming…at first
Key Quotes:
“I always say that the science of development and behavior were key to enhancing the impact of child health services and particularly for general pediatrics.” – Dr. Paul H. Dworkin
“I think I would have encouraged myself, in addition to pursuing some fellowship training, to also think about expanding my knowledge in other related areas.” – Dr. Paul H. Dworkin
Email [email protected] to connect with Paul. Check out https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/ to know more about his work.
Resources Mentioned:
- Help Me Grow National Center
- Journal articles
- A Population Health Approach to System Transformation for Children’s Healthy Development
- Avoiding the Unintended Consequences of Screening for Social Determinants of Health
- Addressing Health Disparities in Early Childhood
- A Framework for Child Health Services: Promoting optimal health, development, and well-being for all children
- Promoting Optimal Development: Identifying Infants and Young Children With Developmental Disorders Through Developmental Surveillance and Screening
- Web article
- I Wonder Why Not a “Child Health Services First” Agenda?
- APP Policy Statements
- The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health
- Poverty and Child Health in the United States
- Preventing Childhood Toxic Stress: Partnering With Families and Communities to Promote Relational Health
If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter or email me at [email protected]. To learn more about me visit https://www.medicalbhs.com/
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