Morning Report:When Chief Residents Share TheirChallenging Cases, You Pass the Test

The chief residents at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Va, handle about 1 or 2 cases per week. About once a month, they have a great teaching case in their morning report. These standout cases challenge the residents’ diagnostic acumen and underscore key points that are both applicable to daily practice and likely to appear as questions on future board certification examinations. For these reasons, John W. Harrington, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School (Norfolk) and director of general academic pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, thought that the chief residents’ morning reports could benefit the readers of CONSULTANT FOR PEDIATRICIANS.

With Dr Harrington’s help, we have developed an engaging quiz feature based on the best of these morning reports. We hope this new “Morning Report” feature will help our readers provide better patient care as well as prepare for maintenance of certification, which is now required every 5 years for all pediatricians regardless of age.

Each “Morning Report” quiz will present a challenging case involving a common pediatric problem, such as the one featured in this issue-“Toddler With Decreased Appetite and Activity.”

In this case, Shervin Kharazmi, MD, briefly describes the patient’s history, pertinent family history, physical examination findings, and laboratory test results.Readers are asked to choose the appropriate next step from a list of options. Dr Kharazmi then systematically reviews each option and whittles down the differential as he makes his way to the conclusion. Included in his discussion, which appears on the second page of the feature in the print journal, is pertinent information about the disease-its pathology, presentation, and treatment. Key “practice pearls” are highlighted throughout the text. In addition, the entire case-with an enhanced discussion-is presented online at www.ConsultantForPediatricians.com.

 
Although “Morning Report” has its origin in the cases presented by chief residents of the pediatric residency program at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, all chief residents in pediatrics are invited to submit the best teaching cases from their morning reports to us. Dr Harrington, who is a member of CONSULTANT FOR PEDIATRICIANS’ editorial board and who will serve as series editor, will review each case for accuracy and educational value. An honorarium will be offered for those cases that are accepted for publication. Submissions can be e-mailed to me at linda.geisler@cmpmedica.com.