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European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 25, Supplement 3, 2015
Elena Syurina
EV Syurina1, K Hens2, W Dondorp1, FJM Feron3
1
Department of Health, Ethics and Society, Maastricht University,
Maastricht, The Netherlands
2
Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law, Univesity of Leuven, Leuven,
Belgium
3
Department of Social Medicine, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The
Netherlands
Contact: e.syurina@maastrichtuniversity.nl
With the rapid development in of genomics preventive
pediatric primary care (PPPC) in particular are undergoing a
paradigm shift. A main characteristic is the urge to move away
from the concept of ‘‘find and fix’’ towards ‘‘predict and
personalize’’. However, no general agreement exists as to how
personalized healthcare knowledge should be used in pediatrics. In order for the healthcare transformation to be
successful, a basic requirement is a close collaboration between
parents and physicians, as these are the major stakeholders in
the process. Such collaboration only works if it is based on
mutual trust.
Even more, in many countries now we see a situation of
reduced trust between physicians and the parents. We about
anti-vaccination movements and groups protesting an extensive information collection within PPPC. This was also
supported by the results of our research into parental opinions
on the issue of use of certain data by the PPPC services in the
Netherlands. We identified some common misconceptions
that include ideas that PPPC can and will take the child out of
the family in case of problems.
This presentation proposes a set of policy steps to be taken to
invite parental support for the transition to a personalized
approach for the benefit of the children. Among the
suggestions raised is the need to adequately address possible
concerns of the parents regarding the use of health information, more evidence-based tailoring of the health information
provision. As parental concerns may arise from a limited
understanding of risk profiling, physicians need to explain how
this approach identifies both the strong sides of each child as
well as its weaknesses and health risks. Other directions for
action include: further empowering of the parents, taking steps
towards improving contact, timely addressing the fears of
discrimination and actions on the societal level to communicate the aims and goals of the PPPC to avoid prejudice.
Key messages
There is a general problem of trust between parents and
primary pediatric care physicians
we propose steps to improve situation: tailored communication of risks, more time for communication and
parental emowerment
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Generating trust in Preventive Pediatric Primary Care
within the context of personalized medicine