Editorial
Welcome to the second decade of the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine (JPRM), first published in 2008. Dr. Jacob “Jay” Neufeld founded this well-received journal for worldwide dissemination of peer-reviewed information in order to help children and adolescents with physical challenges and complex medical needs. Sadly, we lost our dear friend and colleague Dr. Jay on September 29, 2017. Dr. Jay’s Professional and Personal Tributes can be found in Volume 10, Issue 3-4. As the founder of JPRM, he will be an ongoing inspiration.
Since the end of September 2017 Birgit Bogler, JPRM’s managing editor, has been instrumental in running all aspects of the journal. Ms. Bogler queried the appropriate peer reviewers to critique the submissions, made sure the journal met publication deadlines, and kept the journal’s day-to-day business running smoothly ensuring that Dr. Jay’s legacy would continue. We are very fortunate to work with someone of her caliber, expertise and drive.
Reading through a decade of JPRM articles and editorials I am struck by the magnitude of the contributions by so many of our colleagues and the myriad specialists from around the world who served as peer reviewers. In 2011 JPRM became indexed with the U.S. National Library of Medicine. At the end of this editorial, I chronicle highlights from our first decade of publication.
JPRM’s Volume 11, issue 1 has much exciting content. Starting off this issue, the caregiver report by Stacy Suskauer and her co-authors reveals both typical and unique symptoms following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a small clinical sample of preschool-aged children. This report is followed by Tracy Fabri and colleagues’ look at the neuropsychological profile from a rehabilitation perspective in order to inform best clinical practices. For example, developing appropriate treatment pathways as well as supporting clients and families following TBI and stroke in their transition from an inpatient rehabilitation program to home, back to school, and to their community. Next, Sarah Wittry and group evaluate the “clinic walk” and how it is associated with community walking in those who are ambulatory and living with cerebral palsy. The correlation between the “clinic walk” and community ambulation is evaluated in detail. The pilot study by Donna Koller and co-authors looks at Snoezelen, which is an environment that provides controlled sensory stimulation while placing minimal cognitive demands on the individual receiving this treatment. There is very little research that has examined Snoezelen intervention with children who require complex continuing care in a hospital setting. Our next article from Ivana Olivieri and team looks at Computer-Assisted REhabilitation (CARE) Lab in a pilot study utilizing many aspects of technology to provide tailored rehabilitation care specific to those with congenital hemiparesis. The article by Supriya Shah and Philip Bryant presents a case study on the acute onset of fibrocartilaginous emboli, and a summary of the condition and the intensive inpatient rehabilitation course. We conclude this issue with Virginia “Ginny” Paleg and co-author’s systematic review that is the basis for the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy’s care pathway for hypotonia.
Each of our articles this quarter contributes to new ideas in our field. Recently, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s editorial in the January 2018 Journal of Ophthalmology about research on first year medical students’ increased ability to describe the detail of the eye exam after taking a weekly class at an art museum. How novel would that be to require an art class along with the typical curriculum for all first year medical students? I also read Mr. Gladwell’s book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, wherein he references Emil “Jay” Freireich’s unstoppable determination and successful cure of childhood leukemia. Dr. Freireich was ridiculed and heckled and received many threats to his medical career for proposing that low platelet counts were responsible for bleeding in leukemia and that multi-drug treatment was important to cure what at that time was an almost uniformly fatal disease. Dr. Freireich was able to endure his naysayers and was instrumental in changing childhood leukemia from being almost always fatal to being the most curable cancer in children. Mr. Gladwell points out throughout his book that in order to make progress and support change, we cannot continue with the status quo.
In 2016’s Volume 9 Issue 4, Dr Jay’s editorial was about how systems struggle with change. Ignaz Semmelweis, an obstetrician at the Vienna General Hospital in the mid 1800’s, had his medical team wash their hands and instruments. These interventions reduced the death rate from childbirth in his hospital from 18% to 2%. Unfortunately, his views were considered outlandish and Dr. Semmelweis was committed to an asylum, where he died. He is known for the Semmelweis Effect—the tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts established norms. Hungary’s Semmelweis School of Medicine in Budapest is named in his honor.
The profound contributions of Drs. Freireich and Semmelweis lead me to ask the following questions: What if the cure for the conditions that we treat in pediatric rehabilitation is as seemingly simple as washing our hands or making sure platelets are within the normal range? If someone does find that cure, will we subject that individual to treatment similar to that experienced by either Ignaz Semmelweis or Emil “Jay” Freireich?
Thank you to all our contributors, peer reviewers and readers. I am honored to have been selected as JPRM’s new Editor-in-Chief. We receive a steady stream of manuscripts and invite you to participate in peer review or authorship. Please look at the overview for the first decade of JPRM that follows, and contact us with your areas of interest. Topics that have and have not been covered thus far are welcome. In the next decade of JPRM we want to expand this important source of communication of peer-reviewed pediatric rehabilitation information around the globe.
Sincerely yours
Elaine L. Pico, MD, MA Education, FAAP,
FAAPM & R
Editor-in-Chief
Chronicle of Highlights:
2008
Volume 1 Issue 1: Inaugural Issue. Dr. Jay elaborated on the mission of the JPRM to setup an interactive dialogue among the myriad pediatric rehabilitation disciplines in each issue. This issue was dedicated to the training aspects of pediatric rehabilitation team members. There also was a comprehensive review of baclofen pumps.
Volume 1 Issue 2: Elizabeth Moberg-Wolf and Lyn Romeiser Logan guest editors, special issue on Cerebral Palsy
Volume 1 Issue 3: Joseph E. Hornyak guest editor, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). After the dystrophin gene and protein were identified by Dr. Eric P. Hoffman [1,2] in 1987, our care has changed little with the use of corticosteroids to extend duration of ambulation. Dr. Hornyak went on to say that it was not unusual in pediatric rehabilitation to not have cures but to continue to work on quality of life and maximizing function. Dr. Hornyak mentioned a phase 2b trial and the fact that effective treatments will not end but rather change our patients’ rehabilitation needs. [1] E.P. Hoffman, R.H. Brown, Jr. et al., Dystrophin: the protein product of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy locus, Cell 51(6) (1987), 919–928. [2] E.P. Hoffman, C.M. Knudson et al., Subcellular fractionation of dystrophin to the triads of skeletal muscle, Nature 330(6150) (1987), 754–758.
Volume 1 Issue 4: Timothy Brei and Shubhra “Sue“ Mukherjee, guest editors, special issue on spina bifida.
2009
Volume 2 Issue 1 Timothy Brei and Shubhra “Sue“ Mukherjee, guest editors, special issue on Spina Bifida.
Volume 2 Issue 2: George Foltin and Arthur Cooper guest editors, Emergency treatment and topics.
Volume 2 Issue 3: Stephanie Reid, guest editor, special issue on Pediatric limb deficiency.
Volume 2 Issue 4: Linda J. Michaud, guest editor, special issue on TBI.
2010
Volume 3 Issue 1: Paul Harmatz, Joseph Muenzer, and Maurizio Scarpa guest editors, special issue on Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS).
Volume 3 Issue 2: Paul Harmatz, Joseph Muenzer, and Maurizio Scarpa guest editors, special issue on MPS.
Volume 3 Issue 3: Funding for health care, bracing and gait, constraint induced therapy, spina bifida, training cups, standing programs, early mobilization, and caffeine as a neurostimulant.
Volume 3 Issue 4: Sarah W. Blackstone, guest editor, special issue on Augmentative communication.
2011
Volume 4, Issue 1: Jonathan Finlay, guest editor, special issue on Pediatric brain tumors. Other topics include outcome measures in cerebral palsy, osteogenesis imperfecta.
Volume 4, Issue 2: Virginia Nelson and Lydia Yang, guest editors, special issue on Brachial plexus. Other topics include intravenous baclofen.
Volume 4 Issue 3: Freeman Miller, guest editor, special issue on Spastic hip disease.
Volume 4, Issue 4: Lawrence W. Schneider and Miriam A. Manary, guest editors, special issue on Transportation and safety.
2012
Volume 5 Issue 1: Transverse myelitis, energy expenditure, periventricular injury, PEDI-CAT, MPS, ECMO, and augmentative communication.
Volume 5 Issue 2: Constraint induced therapy, brain injury, and Cerebral Palsy.
Volume 5 Issue 3: Special issue on Cerebral Palsy. Announcement of the Gabriella E. Molnar-Swafford, M.D. Fund. Dr. Molnar published 46 scientific articles and 5 books and her guiding principle was that children are not miniature adults, but rather individuals with changing physical, intellectual, and emotional abilities and needs. As a newer clinician at Children’s Hospital Oakland I have memories of Dr. Molnar visiting our department to hand us all signed copies of her 3
Volume 5 Issue 4: M.J. Mulcahey, guest editor, special issue on Spinal cord injury.
2013
Volume 6 Issue 1: Length of stay trends, pain in neonatal intensive care, spinal cord injury, autonomic cardiovascular dysfunction and vitamin D deficiency, and surgical intervention for restoring wrist extension in obstetric brachial plexus palsy.
Volume 6 Issue 2: Co-morbidities, recovery of those with prolonged vegetative or minimally conscious state after TBI, bone mineral density in non-ambulatory patients, spina bifida, and respiratory function children with spastic diplegic and hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy.
Volume 6 Issue 3: Finnish children with cerebral palsy, brain lesions, serial casting versus stretching technique in spina bifida, bladder cancer, encephalitis, Grisel’s Syndrome, and motor function in Cerebral Palsy and postnatal insult.
Volume 6 Issue 4: “Wii-Hab”, ethnicity and culture in spina bifida, continence and spina bifida, CP and death during sleep, baclofen pumps, cytomegalovirus, dental management in Cerebral Palsy.
2014
Volume 7 Issue 1: Paragh K. Shah, guest editor, special issue on Transition (part 1).
Volume 7 issue 2: Bone Health.
Volume 7 Issue 3: Chronic pain, weight assessment in Spina Bifida across Canada, identifying premature infants’ risks for motor delays, Actigraph GT3X accelerometer, TBI and family functioning, Pompe Disease, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and Guillain-Barre syndrome, and virtual reality gaming.
Volume 7, Issue 4: Rehabilitation and medical issues of brain tumors, depression in parents of adolescents with myelomeningocele, MPS muscle strength, lymphoedema, and bilateral congenital deficiency of the tibia.
2015
Volume 8 Issue 4: Stacy Suskauer, guest editor, special issue on TBI.
Volume 8, Issue 3: Neonatal brachial plexus palsy, hemiparesis, congenital limb abnormalities, and PT services for children with Cerebral Palsy in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Volume 8, Issue 2: Rishi Agrawal, guest editor, special issue on Complex pediatric care.
Volume 8, Issue 1: Paragh K. Shah, guest editor, special issue on Transition (part 2).
2016
Volume 9, Issue 1: Russell Butterfield and Nicholas Johnson guest editors, special issue on DMD 30 years after gene encoding dystrophin.
Volume 9, Issue 2: FES in children with disabilities, Turkish version of Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI), developmental coordination disorder in India, retinoblastoma, TBI outcomes in American Indian and Alaska Native children, body composition in spina bifida, Onabotulinumtoxin-A, early mobility of children in a pediatric critical care unit, and poverty and disability.
Volume 9, Issue 3: dedicated to Dr. Linda Michaud.
Medical complexity, pain in cerebral palsy, white matter abnormalities in preterm infants, serial casting for neonatal brachial plexus palsy, Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT), ADHD in youth with epilepsy, motor outcomes and hip angles in premature infants, telehealth.
Volume 9, Issue 4: Club foot, traumatic amputations, plagiocephaly, Cerebral Palsy walking, quality of life of parents with and without spina bifida, parenting a child after their TBI.
2017
The year starts with abstracts from the Spina Bifida World Congress Volume 10, Issue S1 and ends with a special double issue with Timothy Brei and Amy Houtrow as guest editors.
Volume 10, issue 1: Frank Pidcock, guest editor, special issue on Constraint-induced movement therapy.
Volume 10, Issue 2: Neuroprosthesis in hemiplegic cerebral palsy, patient safety culture in pediatric long-term care, tracheostomy decannulation, swallowing and feeding disorders, botulinum toxin A, Nintendo Wii training.
Volume 10, Issues 3,4: T. Brei and A. Houtrow, guest editors, special double issue on Spina Bifida.
