PPDDA and PEPTDA Workforce Summit
These issues potentially adversely impact the workforce which is already
stretched such that significant portions of the United States are
without adequate numbers of pediatric pulmonologists and children in
those areas are underserved (Figure 3). A potential workforce crisis, in
which the need for pediatric pulmonary medicine specialists exceeds
supply, represents a serious threat to the respiratory health of
children and may become a major public health crisis. For this reason,
the combined memberships of the Pediatric Pulmonology Division Directors
Association (PPDDA) and Pediatric Pulmonary Training Directors
Association (PEPTDA) attempted to address these complex issues through a
series of in-person meetings at the American Thoracic Society
International Conference and North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference
and ongoing conference calls. The larger group was divided into three
work groups to address three separate areas of the pediatric pulmonology
workforce issue: 1) factors impacting recruitment into pediatric
pulmonology training programs, 2) evaluation of the effectiveness and
outcomes of pediatric pulmonology training programs and 3) the pediatric
pulmonary medicine landscape of the future. Each of these groups
presents a summary of their work and recommendations to address the
workforce issue in three additional installments.