The Strategic Planning Committee report: the first step in a journey to recognize pediatric hospital medicine as a distinct discipline

Abstract

The field of pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) has experienced phenomenal growth over the past decade. Academic contributions by pediatric hospitalists include the creation of PHM core competencies, national collaborative PHM networks for both research (the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network) and quality improvement (the Value in Inpatient Pediatrics network), a robust and well-attended annual scientific meeting, and an increasing number of divisions or sections of PHM in pediatric departments across the country. Many pediatricians are choosing to pursue careers in PHM,^, and several postgraduate training programs for PHM have emerged. Similar to other generalist pediatric fields,^- the question as to how best for PHM to evolve as a distinct discipline has arisen. Several training and/or certification options are feasible and have been examined by the pediatric hospitalists who constitute the Strategic Planning (STP) Committee. The objectives of this commentary are to (1) describe the work done to investigate these options to date, (2) provide a framework for evaluating them, and (3) describe next steps. This commentary will neither justify subspecialty status for PHM, which is currently still debated within the field, nor will it compare the development of PHM as a subspecialty with other generalist fields because such a comparison is premature.