By: Lewis First, MD, MS; Editor-in-Chief
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Children
with special health care needs (CSHN) are often referred to as just that—a
homogeneous grouping that requires additional medical attention and resources more
so than any other pediatric population.
Yet close-up these children are not homogeneous but vary in their
trajectories in terms of their outcomes over time. Quach et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-2431) opted to
study CSHN and defined four different trajectories that produced very different
outcomes.
The four trajectories involved
some children whose special health care needs were persistent over time, some
whose problem kept emerging over time, some whose issues were transient and
some nonexistent over time. If one can identify
the trajectory a child might be on, it might help us prioritize which children
need which resources, when and for how long.
That is just what the authors do in this study and to further emphasize
its import, editorial board member Dr. Jeanne Van Cleave (doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-0319) offers a
commentary that helps us learn how to provide better individual care through
the use of population data. In this
case, a picture of these trajectories is worth much more than the words in this
blog, so read the study and learn more.
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