Catalyzing Connections for the Future of Adolescent Health: An International Young Professionals Network

Originally published as Nagata JM, Gonzales SR, Yap N, Sawyer SM. Catalyzing Connections for the Future of Adolescent Health: An International Young Professionals Network. J Adolesc Health 2020;66:629-630.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.008.

Despite growing international interest in adolescent health, students, trainees, and young professionals in many countries lack access to training in adolescent health. With the exception of a handful of high-income countries [1], few accredited training programs in adolescent health are evident globally. The absence is most notable in low- and middle-income countries [2e4]. For example, despite the prediction that by 2050, one in two of the world’s adolescents will live in Africa, there are no specialist training programs in adolescent health and medicine in sub-Saharan Africa [4]. Training programs and pipelines for careers in adolescent health are crucial for building a skilled network of multidisciplinary health professionals, which will require country by country initiatives.

Professional societies have an important role in supporting adolescent health training [4] through continuing professional development, supporting curriculum development, accrediting courses, and organizing conferences. These activities can be fostered by building local, national, regional, and global collaborations and networks. For example, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine has developed a training curriculum for residents that promotes the core skills required to practice adolescent medicine in the U.S. [5]. Regionally, the adolescent working group of the European Academy of Paediatrics has developed a set of broad goals and detailed objectives covering the generic prerequisites for quality adolescent health care, both in hospitals and primary care environments [1]. The authors of this working group hope that these will inform and inspire the development of formal adolescent medicine and health training within individual European countries [1]. Globally, the World Health Organization has also developed materials that support curriculum development in adolescent health [2]. Although such activities are helping to fill the “capacity gap” in adolescent health, there are calls for more disruptive solutions that will create new technologies and markets. These solutions may achieve more than simply working harder around traditional approaches to capacity building [4]. One response is from the International Association for Adolescent Health that has recently developed a Young Professionals Network with the goal of supporting students’, trainees’, and young professionals’ interests, knowledge, and skills in adolescent health. In 2018, the Young Professionals Network undertook a survey to understand what young professionals interested in adolescent health might value and to what extent this might be able to be provided by a global network. The survey targeted students, trainees, and young professionals from a range of disciplines who were interested in adolescent health. The survey, designed using SurveyMonkey (San Mateo, CA), was promoted through email lists, social media, attendees of the International Association for Adolescent Health 11th World Congress, and word of mouth. The English-language survey generated responses from all regions of the world but with relatively fewer responses from Latin America. This led to the development of a Spanish version that was distributed to adolescent health networks in Latin America.

Overall, there were 251 respondents from all regions (Latin America 48.7%, sub-Saharan Africa 12.7%, North America excluding Latin America 7.7%, South Asia 7.6%, East Asia 7.3%, Middle East/North Africa 6.0%, Europe 5.2%, and Oceania 4.9%), and 72.1% were female. Notably, 61.8% had not received any formal training in adolescent health. The top three priority areas deemed useful for career development included (1) mentorship from leaders in adolescent health; (2) networking with other early career professionals in adolescent health; and (3) internship/training opportunities related to adolescent health. This survey has informed the initial priorities of the Young Professionals Network.

Given recent global policy focus, it is timely to catalyze connections locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally to enhance capacity in adolescent health to help bridge the current training gaps that are evident in so many countries. The fact that only a minority of countries have formal training programs in adolescent health or national associations for adolescent health is the gap that the Young Professionals Network hopes to bridge. We will, therefore, share current training resources and opportunities and advocate for the creation of nationally accredited training programs in adolescent health and medicine. We believe that the creation of a global multidisciplinary adolescent health and medicine network will help connect and encourage the next generation of adolescent health care providers wherever they might live and work.

Jason M. Nagata, MD, MSc
Sophie Remoue Gonzales, MD
Natalie Yap, MD
Susan M. Sawyer, MBBS, MD
International Association for Adolescent Health
San Francisco, CA

Originally published as Nagata JM, Gonzales SR, Yap N, Sawyer SM. Catalyzing Connections for the Future of Adolescent Health: An International Young Professionals Network. J Adolesc Health 2020;66:629-630.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.008

To view or download this article, please click here.

References
[1] Michaud P, Schrier L, Ross-Russel R, et al. Paediatric departments need to improve residents’ training in adolescent medicine and health: A position paper of the European Academy of Paediatrics. Eur J Pediatr 2018;177:479e87.

[2] Kokotailo PK, Baltag V, Sawyer SM. Educating and training the future adolescent health workforce. J Adolesc Health 2018;62:511e24.

[3] Golub SA, Arunakul J, Hassan A. A global perspective: Training opportunities in adolescent medicine for healthcare professionals. Curr Opin Pediatr 2016;28:447e53.

[4] Sawyer SM, McNeil R, Francis KL, et al. The age of paediatrics. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2019;3:822e30.

[5] Coles MS, Greenberg KB. The time is here: A comprehensive curriculum for adolescent health teaching and learning from the society for adolescent health and medicine. J Adolesc Health 2017;61:129e30.