Pediatric Endocrine Boards Exam Survey
The Education Committee of LWPES will be holding a Fellow's Trainee Day at the Endocrine Society Meeting this year. One of the lectures to be given will be best practices in studying for the initial Pediatric Endocrine Boards Exam. Paola Palma Sisto invites members who have recently taken the exam to take a very short survey (5 minutes) regarding your studying strategies. These results will be anonymously collected and data presented at this training session.
Please click on the link below to be directed directly to the survey:
Click here

SNoPE
Morey Haymond, SNoPE Chair, has identified an immediate project in which LWPES members can begin to collaborate - the Child's Oncology Group (COG) Rare Tumor Registry and Repository. Using this mechanism, LWPES members can systematically contribute all (benign and malignant) endocrine tumors to a tissue and data bank. We suspect that most LWPES members do not know of this Registry, even if their oncology colleagues are participating. If your institution is a COG site that participates in the Rare Tumor Registry and Repository, we request that you contact both Morey (mhaymond@bcm.edu) and your COG coordinator if you are interested in becoming involved.

Maintenance of Certification in Endocrinology (MOCE)
The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) is transitioning away from the traditional recertification process to a flexible maintenance of certification process that includes the reinforcement of lifelong learning and quality improvement. The requirement for a recertification examination every 7 years will be replaced in 2010 by a requirement for maintenance of certification, which will involve an open-book MOCE examination every 5 years (Part 2 MOCE), a proctored closed-book examination every 10 years (Part 3), and on-going documentation of quality improvement (QI) activity (Part 4). (Part 1 MOCE will simply be verification that the individual has a valid, active license and has not been disciplined by a state board.)

LWPES has formed the MOCE Committee to partner with both the ABP and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to help our members meet the Part 4 MOCE requirement. This committee, co-chaired by Janet Silverstein and Bob Schwartz, will be developing ABP-acceptable tools in the areas of type 1 diabetes mellitus and congenital hypothyroidism, topics chosen as the result of a member survey. The national QI collaborative for pediatric endocrinology that they will set up is expected to impact patient outcomes by creating systems that support evidence-based practice, shared data, shared learning, and systematic improvement.

Committee members will attend an ABP-sponsored planning workshop April 9-10, 2008 to work with QI and data experts to begin to develop strategies for implementing this program. They are charged to: 1) Identify and summarize previous QI efforts in pediatric endocrinology. 2) Identify existing databases or data-sharing efforts related to type 1 diabetes or congenital hypothyroidism. 3) Identify potential funding sources for these projects (e.g., foundations, funding agencies, etc.). Members with knowledge in these areas are asked to promptly contact Janet Silverstein at silvejh@peds.ufl.edu.

Society's Presidents Interviewed!
The following videos were created between August 2006 and March 2007, as part of the 35th Anniversary Celebration meeting of LWPES in Toronto, May 2007. They are personal interviews of three of the Society's first Presidents, Claude Migeon, Robert Blizzard, and Mel Grumbach, conducted by President Kenneth Copeland in Baltimore, Charlottesville, and San Francisco, respectively... View Videos