1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195
I was pleased to see the paper by McAtee and Silver on the recent expansion of the role of the nurse practitioner1. It provides another push in what I think is the right direction. Pediatricians are overtrained for the delivery of wellchild care. Primary care for children should be provided by well-trained family physicians, nurse practitioners, MEDEX, and other assistants. Most pediatricians should be hospital-based consultants. Some of these would have welldefined subspecialties such as neonatology, neurology, immunology, and hematology.