1 Professor, Department of Community & Family Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worchester, Massachusetts 01604
Dr. Chamberlin is justifiably concerned about how to evaluate preventive health care. He points out the need to measure input content and goals (as well as time) and to measure outcome or goal achievements in broader functional terms than the narrow conventional but objective medical parameters. Although these are tough issues they must certainly be faced. However, by addressing himself to minimal numbers of scheduled visits to a medical setting rather than to how to attain broad child-rearing objectives, I think Dr. Chamberlin has inadvertently fallen into a trap.