AAP members have shaped policy on the care of children, the pediatric profession and the health system for nearly 100 years and are poised to find solutions to today’s challenges that impact children’s health, AAP CEO/Executive Vice President Mark Del Monte, J.D., told Academy leaders during the annual Leadership Conference in Itasca, Ill.
“We are part of an enormous legacy of overcoming barriers large and small with unrelenting progress toward achieving our mission,” he said.
Del Monte described AAP founders as rebels who pushed back when the medical establishment in the 1920s did not support funding a maternal and infant health program. Today’s pediatricians carry on that legacy.
“They knew then what we know now: that public policy is an essential tool to advance the health and well-being of children and families,” Del Monte told roughly 300 AAP members Saturday.
Noting the historic impact of Fellows such as author Benjamin Spock, M.D., FAAP, who helped bring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into the antiwar movement, Del Monte emphasized the pediatrician’s role as an advocate and a voter.
“Remember that every law that’s ever been passed that protects children … that values children … that makes the world a little safer, a little better for children, started with a vote. A vote for people who put children first,” he said.
Del Monte celebrated the recent vote in the U.S. Senate vote to advance the Kids Online Safety Act, bipartisan legislation backed by pediatricians to protect children on social media. This came on the heels of this month’s White House launch of a federal task force on children’s online health with leaders of the AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.
“For the first time, we have a chance to put some real guardrails in place for children and youth in social media,” Del Monte said.
Internally, AAP leaders continue re-examining policies, guidelines and educational materials to eliminate race-based medicine. In addition, the review of new evidence related to the AAP policy Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents continues. The policy, which was reaffirmed in 2023, often has been mischaracterized as aggressively pushing medications or interventions, he said.
“The AAP will continue to follow the science and put patients and families first,” Del Monte said.
He highlighted AAP research that illustrates the ethnic and economic diversity of the United States and how it affects pediatric practices.
“Only collectively can we understand the nation’s children and what it is they need to grow up and thrive and contribute to the health and prosperity of our nation. Only as a team can we provide pediatricians with the resources they need to care for these children. Together, we can provide lawmakers with policy solutions needed to put children first,” he said.
He called the Academy a beacon of pediatric leadership and “the national voice our country needs now more than ever.”
He encouraged AAP leaders to engage in the Academy’s campaign to encourage people to vote with policies that benefit children in mind.
“As daunting as our challenges may seem, we can find encouragement in remembering those who came before us, understanding how far we have come and knowing that we are the only organization able to understand and embrace the diversity and variability of the children across the country … and the challenges their doctors face.”
Additional coverage of the AAP Leadership Conference
