THE Executive Board of the American Academy of Pediatrics has given intensive consideration to the many problems that face the practicing pediatrician in this era of rapid scientific progress, population expansion, and socioeconomic change. Rapid growth in the child population without parallel increase in numbers of pediatricians makes the delivery of quality pediatric care at the private practice level progressively more difficult. To an even greater degree, affording proper health services for the nation's underprivileged children is a tremendous challenge. Marked decrease in numbers of general practitioners reduces still further the medical manpower for child health needs.
All of the problems cited above will intensify during at least the next 15 years, for it is predicted that by 1980 more than half the population in the United States will be less than 21 years old.