Response to the Commentary “Advancing Medical Education Training in Adolescent Health”

To the Editor. In May 2008, a commentary by Fox et al was published in Pediatrics 1 and a report by Fox et al was published online by Incenter Strategies.2 The commentary focused on residency training in adolescent medicine, and the report focused on fellowship training in adolescent medicine. The authors stated in the commentary that “the time has come to consider the need for major reforms in adolescent medicine training.” In the report they called for “a reconsideration of the fundamental goals and needs of adolescent medicine training as well as targeted action to reinvigorate the field.” We appreciate the surveys and analyses done for the commentary and report by Incenter Strategies and agree that generalists need more and better training in adolescent health. However, we disagree with several of the conclusions and recommendations discussed in the 2 publications. Although we recognize that only the commentary was published by Pediatrics , the coincident online appearance and electronic distribution …