From the Chair
Pediatric Neurosurgical Education: A Lifelong Pursuit
Andrew Parent, MD
In the past, pediatric neurosurgeons were fundamentally self-taught. They designated themselves as a loose confederation of mutually supportive surgeons who focused their practice in pediatrics as they developed the techniques and methods necessary to their evolving subspecialty.
Pediatric Neurosurgery: An Evolution In fact, Harvey Cushing, MD, appointed Franc Ingraham, MD, at the Boston Children's Hospital to concentrate his efforts in pediatrics, and thus evolved this focus of education in neurosurgery for infants and children. Subsequently, at some children's hospitals around the country, neurosurgeons developed a focused practice in pediatric neurosurgery, and this later evolved in pediatric neurosurgical fellowship training programs. Your present section chair was trained outside of the fellowship program and may be one of the last section chairs to not be fellowship-trained.
Indeed, the Section on Pediatric Neurosurgery can be very proud of how our subspecialty has taken a leadership role in developing a structured fellowship program that is externally supervised and accredited. Our subspecialty also took a leadership role in establishing the recertification process in pediatric neurosurgery. The continuing education of a pediatric neurosurgeon requires constant updating that is partially accomplished by reading our various journals in pediatric neurosurgery, including the Child's Nervous System and Pediatric Neurosurgery, soon to be called the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. This will result in a major increase in circulation, not only nationally, but also worldwide.
Annual Pediatric Section Meeting, Dec. 2-5 Your section has worked very diligently to develop the upcoming annual section meeting in Salt Lake City, which should be a wonderful location in early December. There will be invited lectures on tumor stem cell and medulloblastoma research, deep brain stimulation for dystonia, and a special focus on neurofibromatosis. This is an excellent opportunity to maintain and advance your continuing medical education on focused pediatric neurosurgical topics.