Colleen Kraft, MD, elected AAP president
Colleen Kraft realized one of her career goals on November 22 when AAP president Benard Dreyer, MD, called to congratulate her on being voted president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She was elated.
Kraft’s win comes at a crucial time for pediatrics and children’s healthcare, in general. With the transition to Donald Trump’s presidential administration and a Republican Congress, the fate of the Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance. Proposed changes to the way Medicaid funding is distributed to states are also concerning.
“In all the discussions about healthcare reform, nobody seems to be talking about how kids figure into the equation,” says Kraft, who is the medical director of The Health Network by Cincinnati Children’s.
Empowering pediatricians
As president-elect of the AAP, Kraft will become a spokesperson for 66,000 pediatricians across the US. She’ll be at the helm of policy decisions for the organization and will be charged with communicating those decisions to pediatricians and to the public.
The most pressing issue she sees is maintaining community access to pediatricians and pediatric services.
“Big healthcare corporations are swallowing up small practices,” she says. “When big corporations take over, they often decide family medicine can handle pediatric care. I want to keep pediatricians available in our communities.”
Kraft also wants to preserve the personal nature of the provider/patient relationship that can get lost in a larger healthcare system. “Private practices tend to be more familiar with individual patients’ conditions. That relationship is so undervalued in this country. It’s not helping families to take that away,” she says.
A personal passion
Kraft is animated when discussing children’s health and how to improve it.
“I was a street kid who grew up in a large family that didn’t have much money,” she explains. “My career trajectory began with the Head Start program, which I was enrolled in back in 1965. One of the teachers told me I was so smart I could grow up to be a doctor. Obviously, she had a big impact on my life.”
Kraft hopes her words as AAP president will have an equally important impact on the trajectory of pediatric healthcare.
“You have to tell a compelling story that resonates with people,” she says. “Take, for example, the controversy about vaccines and autism. It’s not enough to talk about the scientific evidence that supports the safety of vaccines. You have to tell the story about the kid who died from meningitis because he wasn’t vaccinated, or about the mother who took her child to a ‘chicken pox party’ because she wanted her to develop a ‘natural’ immunity to the disease – a decision that proved fatal to the child. The AAP is the ultimate platform to bring about change on these important issues.”
Kraft’s election comprises a 3-year commitment, which began January 1. She will serve as president-elect through December 31 of this year, then fulfill her term as president from January 1 through December 31, 2018. After that, she will remain as immediate past president for 1 year.
“I want my colleagues to know that, as president of the AAP, I’ll have their backs,” says Kraft. “We advocate for our children, but children can’t be well if we don’t care for our pediatricians. So, I will always have their best interests in mind.”
