American Academy of Pediatrics - Vermont Chapter

The AAPVT has gained national recognition after receiving an Outstanding Chapter Award at the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Annual Leadership Forum held in March in Schaumburg, Ill. 

The Outstanding Chapter Awards recognize chapters for excellence in programs that promote the health and welfare of children and are presented in four categories based on membership: small chapter, medium chapter, large chapter, and very large chapter.  The Vermont Chapter earned the award for the small chapter category. 

“I’d like to thank all our members, and particularly our chapter’s board members, for their hard work,” said Barbara Frankowski, M.D., the AAPVT’s president and a pediatrician at the University of Vermont Medical Group.  “We are especially proud of our busy pediatricians and family medicine doctors who participate in quality improvement work through the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP), taking time from their busy clinical days to work on systems improvements that affect their patients.”

The Vermont Chapter was recognized for its work to emphasize early brain and child development, decrease the adverse effects of poverty on childhood health, enhance quality improvement, and improve the transition of adolescents and young adults from pediatric to adult medicine, among other initiatives.

“Members of the American Academy of Pediatrics do tremendous work at the state chapter level throughout the country,” said Wendy Davis, M.D., an AAPVT board member and clinical professor of Pediatrics at VCHIP.  “But I think Vermont stood out for its collaborative approach to improving health care delivery and health outcomes for children and families, and for its strategic engagement of key partners, such as families themselves, the Vermont Department of Health, the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital, and others involved in Vermont’s health reform efforts.”

The Vermont Chapter last won an Outstanding Chapter Award in 2007.