Rachel Garfield, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor of pediatrics and executive director of the Vermont Child Health Improvement Plan

(SEPTEMBER 28, 2023) Rachel Garfield, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor of pediatrics and executive director of the Vermont Child Health Improvement Plan, spoke to WCAX-TV about a new report outlining steps to address a shortage of pediatric specialists.

Garfield was one of 17 experts on the Committee on the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce and Its Impact on Child Health and Well-Being established by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, tasked with recommending strategies and actions to ensure an adequate pediatric subspecialty physician workforce, enable broad access to high-quality subspecialty care, and promote a robust research portfolio to advance the health and health care of infants, children, and adolescents.

“There can be long wait times for certain types of care, and that’s because there just aren’t enough people going into this field,” Garfield said. “And then also the places where those people are choosing to practice may not be evenly distributed either across the country or across the state, even in Vermont.”

Garfield addressed this critical issue in a NASEM report outlining a set of recommendations that, if fully implemented, will enhance the quality of pediatric medical subspecialty care by a well-supported, excellently trained, and appropriately utilized primary care, subspecialty, and physician-scientist workforce.