By Sue Berry, MD, FAAP, president
It’s fall and the beginning of our Chapter’s action year. Two meetings that are important for our chapter activities have recently taken place.
The first was our Chapter board meeting. Though our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, the first meeting of the year for our board happens in the fall. I was very impressed with the breadth and depth of our board – they will represent you and the children of Minnesota well.
The second was one many of you might not know as much about. Over the last two years, MNAAP has participated in a coalition of primary care provider organizations. This includes our colleagues in internal medicine, family medicine, osteopathic medicine, and physician assistant and advanced practice nursing organizations. The fall meeting of the group continued our work defining areas for common effort to support families and children particularly in legislation. Topics ranged from the use of patient outcomes as a measure of quality to provider resilience. Again, I was impressed by the commitment of all of these organizations to focus on patient needs.
I hope as the year progresses that we will all continue to work together for Minnesota kids. Our past board member, Dr. Sarah Jane Schwarzenberg, has done this in a big way. She just completed work as lead author on the AAP statement “Promoting Food Security for All Children.” I recommend that you all read it and learn more about what we can do as a professional group to meet this important goal. Please offer her your thanks when you see her!
