Identifying Food Insecurity

Our Quality Reports Editor Dr. Alex Kemper offers the following preview of what’s being published in the newest section of our journal:

Dr. Burkhardt et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-1153) present a quality improvement project to identify food insecurity with screening by pediatric residents. I was really struck by the magnitude of food insecurity and the ability of screening to identify these families. I look forward to the next step — learning about the effectiveness of interventions. However, even without knowing about the outcomes of identification, I think this is really important work. I have heard some say that this is "opening Pandora's box" because food insecurity is so hard to address. On the contrary, I think this is a critical issue for pediatricians and one that we should be doing a better job of in our clinics. What a great training experience for the residents at Cincinnati Children's!