Pediatrics and Members of the Vision of Pediatrics 2020 Task Force

Over the last decade, health care has experienced continuous, capricious, and ever-accelerating change. In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics convened the Vision of Pediatrics (VOP) 2020 Task Force in 2008. This task force was charged with identifying forces that affect child and adolescent health and the implications for the field of pediatrics. It determined that shifts in demographics, socioeconomics, health status, health care delivery, and scientific advances mandate creative responses to these current trends. Eight megatrends were identified as foci for the profession to address over the coming decade. Given the unpredictable speed and direction of change, the VOP 2020 Task Force concluded that our profession needs to adopt an ongoing process to prepare for and lead change. The task force proposed that pediatric clinicians, practices, organizations, and interest groups embark on a continual process of preparing, envisioning, engaging, and reshaping (PEER) change. This PEER cycle involves (1) preparing our capacity to actively participate in change efforts, (2) envisioning possible futures and potential strategies through ongoing conversations, (3) engaging change strategies to lead any prioritized changes, and (4) reshaping our futures on the basis of results of any change strategies and novel trends in the field. By illustrating this process as a cycle of inquiry and action, we deliberately capture the continuous aspects of successful change processes that attempt to peer into a multiplicity of futures to anticipate and lead change. Pediatrics 2010;126:982–988 In January 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics launched the Vision of Pediatrics (VOP) 2020 project. At the heart of this project was the explicit acknowledgment of the inevitability of change in a world of increasing complexity, unpredictability, and interconnectedness. The VOP 2020 focus on change and its impact on child and adolescent (hereafter, “child”) health and the practice of pediatric health care was built on previous efforts. Shifts in US population demographics, family structure, income, educational levels, and cultural norms1–3 continue to directly affect the health and well-being of children, adolescents, and young adults (hereafter, “children”) as portrayed in the Future of Pediatric Education reports in 1978 and 2000.4 Modifying pediatric educational programs to adapt to change was the focus of the recent Residency Review and Redesign Project.5 Medical journals and the media flood practitioners and families with scientific advances, and health organizations, professional societies, federal agencies, health plans, and accrediting bodies have implemented tools AUTHORS: Laurel K. Leslie, MD, MPH, FAAP,a Kenneth M. Slaw, PhD,b Anne Edwards, MD, FAAP,c Amy J. Starmer, MD, MPH, FAAP,d John C. Duby, MD, FAAP,e and Members of the Vision of Pediatrics 2020 Task Force aPediatrics and Medicine, Tufts Medical Center/Floating Hospital for Children, Boston, Massachusetts; bDepartment of Membership and Strategic Planning, American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, Illinois; cPediatrics, Park Nicollet Health Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota; dGeneral Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts; and eDivision of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron, Ohio