The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) seeks to improve the health and well-being of America's children, in part, by formulating well-designed child health policy statements. The development of child health policy statements should always consider 4 key principles: integrity, credibility, fairness, and responsibility. A recent example of the child health policymaking process of the AAP was the joint statement of the AAP and US Public Health Service on the use of a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal in vaccines and recommendations for hepatitis B vaccine administration. The perceived need to address the thimerosal issue quickly to provide pediatricians with timely recommendations precluded an extensive inclusive policymaking process. The process used demonstrates that the AAP, the US Public Health Service and other public agencies, and experts from academia can respond quickly and work together in the best interests of our children. This commentary will reflect on how the child health policymaking process of the AAP tried to consider these 4 key principles in its deliberations and understand the possible implications of alternative policy options.

The principle of integrity involves the need to gain as complete an understanding of the issue as possible and communicate an unbiased assessment, acknowledging both what is known and not known. The AAP sought to maintain the integrity of the process by presenting the available information to pediatricians in as impartial and intellectually honest way as possible. The AAP became . . . [Full Text of this Article]