At this year’s Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) conference, over 7,500 researchers, clinicians, and medical educators gathered in Hawaii to discuss the latest scientific discoveries. Scott Oltman, an epidemiologist with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the California Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi), was there to present his study, plus several more from academic colleagues who couldn’t attend.
“We work very specifically with preterm birth, but the topics cover everything from fetal to adolescent health,” says Oltman. “The conference discussions are very specific, for example, I could have gone to talks exclusively on newborn metabolism.”
According to Oltman, PAS attendees are a mix of medical school students and residents involved in research and clinical work, as well as pediatricians doing studies on the academic side, like at UCSF.
Oltman presented three studies as posters at the conference, including one he led on the specific metabolic changes in newborns who receive skin-to-skin contact. Other studies included the health benefits for preterm newborns who receive skin-to-skin contact, inequities in the administration of medications that help improve the development of babies at risk for preterm births, and using metabolic profiles of preterm babies to predict health complications.
The study that got the most attention was a COVID-19 developmental study led by Rebecca Baer, epidemiologist and analyst at the University of California San Diego, and a researcher with PTBi. The research examined whether the circumstances of the pandemic, which included facial masks, social isolation, social distancing, infection, and/or vaccination, negatively impacted the growth and development of infants born during the pandemic.
“There was concern that newborns were talking later, that they start socializing differently, or that it was delayed,” says Oltman. “What we found is that development wasn't really affected, which runs contrary to a lot of the presumptions we were hearing.”
When the conference wrapped up, Oltman appreciated seeing all the work he presented contribute to a larger picture of pediatric health. It’s a collective effort; one that can create health advances for children in a way that no single specialty alone could.
Photo credit: Pediatric Academic Societies. Used with permission.
