Identify your strengths and interests, stay in contact with professional peers, attend national meetings and take time to relax.

Many payers hold the primary care provider (PCP) responsible for the total cost of care, which includes what the specialists you refer to do for your patients.

Understanding your panel of patients can help ensure you have the proper resources in place to meet their needs.

Patients and families who perceive their pediatric office as a true medical home that cares about them, treats them with kindness and respect, and is there for them are more likely to return for care.

There is consensus and good evidence that a significant part of the solution to problems in primary care has to rely on team-based care and a patient-centered approach.

Increasingly, colleagues, patients, payers and certifying agencies expect quality measurement to achieve the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower cost.

Some commercial payers and Medicaid health maintenance organizations already are migrating away from strict fee-for-service (FFS) payments to pediatricians toward capitated payments or modified FFS payments that reward good performance on cost and quality metrics.

Since early career physicians are accustomed to quick access to information, pediatric practices should strive for the most advanced systems available for receiving, retrieving and disseminating information.

Dedicated pediatric hospitalists now provide much of the care for hospitalized children.

Pediatricians can refer and co-manage or be the primary behavioral health providers for their patients.

A key goal of the task force is to help pediatricians address the complex needs of children and families, including the Academy’s recent emphases on poverty, epigenetics, early brain and child development, and social determinants of child health.

Public and private sectors have tested innovations in delivery systems, data acquisition and analysis, and payment methodologies in quest of the “triple aim” of improving individual and population health at a reduced per capita cost with a greater patient-centered focus.

Recent developments enable clinicians to take a population health perspective by looking beyond individual patients and patients in their practice to children and families in their communities.

As we navigate the ever-changing waters of our medical communities, it is imperative that we examine our concept of providing good care for children one family at a time — inside the walls of our office(s).

The Academy has become a partner in an initiative that will improve access to care for children and youths with epilepsy.