Doctor’s Note: March Newsletter Introduction from Dr. Lee Beers

Dear Pediatric Health Network,

It is hard to believe that it is already March! Spring is just around the corner, and I’d imagine most of you are looking forward to that just as much as I am. In addition to the cherry blossoms, warmer weather and longer days, here at PHN we have a few other things we’d love to share and remind you of that you can also look forward to.

As a part of our newly launched Behavioral Health Initiative, we are updating the PHN website with practical and user-friendly mental health education for physicians and other medical providers, including handouts and information you can share with families. These educational resources will be organized mainly by diagnosis, in addition to some more general
information. The first phase of this update is available on the website now — please take a look and let us know what you think so we can ensure that we are best meeting your needs as we continue to build out the site.

If you haven’t already, please be sure to fill out the Annual Practice Survey (I guess that isn’t really something to look forward to, but the team is all looking forward to reviewing and learning from your expertise and input!). There are some specific questions regarding behavioral health in your practices which will help us to develop the next stage of this work and focus on things that would be most impactful. Concurrently, we are also in the process of reaching out to other pediatric health networks across the country to learn from their models and best practices. We know that sustainability is critically important, and so we are particularly hoping to learn from what others are doing in this area.

Save the date! Future of Pediatrics 2023 will be held on Wednesday, June 21, at the Marriott North Bethesda Conference Center. This year’s CME program will be one-day in person, with a reception and dinner that same evening. It was so nice to visit with many of you at the Business of Pediatrics conference, and we are truly looking forward to seeing all of you in the spring!