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Background: John M. Opitz, a towering figure in both stature and scientific achievement, left an indelible mark on the fields of genetics, pediatrics, and embryology. Born in 1935 in Hamburg to a Jewish family, Opitz's early life was marked by adversities. Despite these challenges, he pursued a remarkable career, immigrating to the United States at 15 years and becoming a renowned scientist in institutions like Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin, where he made groundbreaking contributions to clinical genetics., Main Body: A testament to his compassionate nature, Opitz dedicated himself to understanding and treating rare genetic disorders, earning him eponymous recognition in several medical conditions. His impact extended beyond academia, as evidenced by his collaborative efforts with Sicilian universities to advance clinical genetics in Italy. Opitz's teaching style emphasized simplicity, empathy, and meticulous clinical examination, leaving an indelible mark on students and colleagues., Conclusion: John M. Opitz's towering intellect, compassionate demeanor, and profound impact on medicine and genetics made him a figure of enduring significance. His legacy lives on through the countless lives he touched, the knowledge he transmitted, and the enduring friendships he forged. In remembering John Opitz, we honor not only a man, but also a myth-a symbol of resilience, humanity, and scientific excellence., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Medical philately, with its diverse themes, is a faithful testimony of the historical events that have affected humanity. Likewise, it allows us to evidence its role as a diffuser of diverse prevention cam paigns carried out to control and eradicate serious infections, together with other achievements of health policy in the child population. Nowadays, the knowledge and collection of postage stamps is an increasingly unusual pastime. On the other hand, sometimes there is a marked historical ignoran ce and lack of appreciation of the effective actions for the control of infectious diseases, forgetting the enormous effect of these on the daily life of the current society. Through the visual testimony offe red by the postage stamps, we review the sanitary, educational, and therapeutic actions destined to control the infections in the pediatric patient, with emphasis on our country. In addition, we discuss the new populations at risk for the appearance of septic episodes. Even today, serious infections and sepsis represent an important public health problem.

History provides wonderful insights into how society develops, providing innumerable lessons that can be used as individuals and institutions move into the future. The history of medicine provides particular value, yet it is so often overlooked by the present, society taking for granted what has often been a tremendous struggle to achieve. This overview of the history of paediatric surgery at the University of the Witwatersrand provides amazing insights into what has been achieved in a period spanning three centuries.

During the Byzantine Times, medicine and surgery developed as Greek physicians continued to practice in Constantinople. Healing methods were common for both adults and children, and pediatrics as a medical specialty did not exist. Already Byzantine hospitals became institutions to dispense medical services, rather than shelters for the homeless, which included doctors and nurses for those who suffered from the disease. A major improvement in the status of hospitals as medical centers took place in this period, and physicians were called archiatroi. Several sources prove that archiatroi were still functioning in the late sixth century and long afterward, but now as xenon doctors. Patients were averse to surgery due to the incidence of complications. The hagiographical literature repeated allusions to doctors. Concerns about children with a surgical disease often led parents to seek miraculous healings achieved by Christian Protectors - Saints. This paper is focused on three eminent Byzantine physicians and surgeons, Oribasius, Aetius of Amida, Paul of Aegina, who dealt with pediatric operations and influenced the European Medicine for centuries to come. We studied historical and theological sources in order to present a comprehensive picture of the curative techniques used for pediatric surgical diseases during the Byzantine Times.

The scientific activities of Carlos Artur Moncorvo de Figueiredo at the General Polyclinic of Rio de Janeiro (Policlínica Geral do Rio de Janeiro), which he himself founded, are analyzed. His professional and political actions were fundamental for the introduction of pediatrics both in the establishment of a technical space for healing and in the formation of a specific discipline for the teaching of pediatrics at the faculties of medicine in the Empire, then based in the Court and in Salvador. Rather than arising in response to the social issue surrounding the fight against infant mortality, as is often implied in the historiography, pediatrics seems to have emerged from a movement for the implementation of experimental medicine.

This article deals with the problem of infant mortality in Santiago, Chile, and the development of pediatric medicine during the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on the specialists who contributed to organizing the knowledge and practices that structured their professional field. In order to pursue the objective and systematize this new medical field, our analysis suggests the decisive role of the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine and the appearance of coursework dedicated specifically to childhood diseases. Our research is based on various historical sources including the press, medical literature, thesis archives, and the Anuario Estadístico de la República de Chile [Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Chile]. Likewise, the inauguration of children's hospitals expresses an institutional setting where physicians position their work, put scientific treatments into practice, and most importantly, they become spaces that allow for the reduction of infant mortality.

The last 2 decades have seen growing recognition of the need to appropriately identify and treat children with osteoporotic fractures. This focus stems from important advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of bone fragility, the natural history and predictors of fractures in chronic conditions, the use of bone-active medications in children, and the inclusion of bone health screening into clinical guidelines for high-risk populations. Given the historic focus on bone densitometry in this setting, the International Society for Clinical Densitometry published revised criteria in 2013 to define osteoporosis in the young, oriented towards prevention of overdiagnosis given the high frequency of extremity fractures during the growing years. This definition has been successful in avoiding an inappropriate diagnosis of osteoporosis in healthy children who sustain long bone fractures during play. However, its emphasis on the number of long bone fractures plus a concomitant bone mineral density (BMD) threshold ≤ -2.0, without consideration for long bone fracture characteristics (eg, skeletal site, radiographic features) or the clinical context (eg, known fracture risk in serious illnesses or physical-radiographic stigmata of osteoporosis), inappropriately misses clinically relevant bone fragility in some children. In this perspective, we propose a new approach to the definition and diagnosis of osteoporosis in children, one that balances the role of BMD in the pediatric fracture assessment with other important clinical features, including fracture characteristics, the clinical context and, where appropriate, the need to define the underlying genetic etiology as far as possible., (© Endocrine Society 2019. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

In our paper we report a brief history of the X-rays discovery and discuss the implications of their use and abuse in the Italian pedriatic schools of the early 20th century. Indeed, history of the X-ray treatment in the Italian Pediatric School has not yet been well studied. Even if the scientific experience of many physicians is well known in literature, a summary was missing. In Italy, in 1900, exposure to Röntgenand ultraviolet radiation or to large amounts of solar rays was a widespread medical practice, especially in several pediatric schools. During those years, diagnosis and treatment of childhood pathologies underwent considerable changes, especially after the twenties, when scientists developed an unquestionable trust in the therapeutic properties of radiation, considered harmless at that time. We report the main steps of the scientific research of the early 20th century in Italy.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC., (© 2019 by the American Diabetes Association.)

Starting from the hypothesis that laboratories played an important role in pediatrics becoming an autonomous discipline, this article studies the influence of scientific travel on the appropriation of new methodologies by Spanish pediatricians and child-care experts in the first third of the twentieth century. To do so, it analyzes the travel awards granted by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas. It describes the scientific geography created by the program and takes an in-depth look at the role of mentors - especially Gustavo Pittaluga (1876-1956) - in this process. In addition to a prosopographical study of the group, it presents three cases that demonstrate the importance of the program in bringing pediatrics into contact with bacteriology, pathological anatomy and biochemistry.

Désiré-Magloire Bourneville ought to be thought of as the father of Pediatric Neurology for his significant contributions to the field. He worked as a physician, politician, writer, and editor. He was the first to describe the autosomal dominant genetic condition known as "tuberous sclerosis complex", after conducting an autopsy on a young female patient, where the main finding in the central nervous system was multiple dense tubers. The patient had refractory epilepsy and intellectual disability. His work was based on the study of epilepsy and idiocy, and he was also an advocate of public health and social medicine education; creating day hospital programs for children with this type of neurologic disease.

Purpose: Pediatric preventive health services are delivered in many different formats throughout the world. In Israel, these services for young children are provided in designated Maternal Child Health Clinics (MCHC). The history and operation of Israel's MCHC have been described primarily in the Hebrew language medical literature with most of these reports being over a decade old. This paper provides an up to date summary of the evolution and current care in Israel's one-hundred-year old model for the provision of preschool preventive health services. As these clinics have been recognized by the World Organization as a model for emulation, it is important that such information be made available. Israel's MCHC provide universal care to infants and preschool children (0-6 years), free of charge. These community-based clinics provide developmental surveillance, growth monitoring, and routine childhood immunizations. Anticipatory guidance is offered to families on topics including nutrition, parenting and child safety. Screening is also performed for maternal postpartum depression and family violence. Care is given by public health nurses working in collaboration with physicians. The vast majority (> 96%) of the country's children receive care in this system. Immunization coverage rates through this system are in line with World Health Organization guidelines - over 95% overall average nationally. Unfortunately, the allocated funding has not increased in proportion to the population growth. There is ongoing debate on the role of the national government in health services: should it be that of a direct services provider or focus on guidance and regulation of the health system., Conclusion: MCHC well child care can help assure widespread provision of pediatric preventive health care. For this model to function, both its funding and content needs to be updated on an ongoing basis to reflect current preventive health care needs.

Here, two papers are presented, which constitute the first reports of surgical procedures in Mexican children performed at the 19th century. The two publications refer to surgical operations for the extraction of bladder stones. At that time, there was no anesthesia, so part of the description alludes to the suffering of the patients and the operative difficulties. The first case, is referred to as a lithotomy in a 17-year-old girl, performed by surgeon José Victoriano Guerrero in Guadalajara in 1822. The publication is not an academic report, but a pamphlet written as a gift to Emperor Augustin I to celebrate his ascension to the throne. The second work, is a lateral lithotomy in a 5-year-old boy, published by Dr. Luis Jecker in the first issue of the Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de Mégico in 1836., (Copyright: © 2019 Permanyer.)

Objective: The authors present an historical review of aspects of the life of Professor Manuel R. Gómez, a Spanish neuropediatrician, who graduated in Havana and is known internationally for his work while he was in charge of Pediatric Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA., Results: His main contribution was related to the tuberous sclerosis complex, demystifying the Vogt triad previously used as a diagnostic criterion, and he was considered the "father of the tuberous sclerosis complex " in the USA.

It analyzes the set-up of pediatrics as a specialized medical field in Buenos Aires, between 1890-1920. The article seeks to demonstrate this process as a result of two movements: the delimitation and characterization of children as a particular object of knowledge and intervention, and the institutionalization of some physicians as a professional group that sought to legitimate their specificity within the medicine field and beyond. After contextualizing socially and historically the concerns of medical knowledge on childhood, it explores with detail how the field was constructed, and the associative and academic movement that allowed pediatricians to constitute themselves as a group of specialists that bear a specific expertise.

The knowledge of medicine underwent a revolution in the Qajar period, especially during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (1831-1896 AD). The dispatch of students to Europe, establishment of Dar ul-Funun, Hafez al-Seheh Assembly, and clinics, entrance of European teachers and physicians to Iran, approval of medical rules by the parliament, introduction of a new therapeutic style, and translation of medical textbooks into Persian were some of the changes that occurred during this period. As a result, modern medicine influenced the Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine. An educated Iranian physician, Mirza Ali Doctor Hamedani was one of the physicians of this period, who traveled to France, studied the European medicine and considerably contributed to the evolution of the modern medicine along the traditional medicine. The present manuscript describes the scientific personality and contributions of this physician to the science of medicine., (© 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.)

The European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition has experienced an amazing development in the 50 years of its existence. It grew from a small group of 36 friends who held an informal meeting with some 20 oral presentations to share and discuss their clinical and research work, to a large, multiprofessional society that sets widely recognized standards for clinical care and policy and hosts the world's largest congress of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition with more than 4500 delegates from 100 countries. However, the Society's mission has remained the same: to promote the health of children with special attention to the gastrointestinal tract, liver, and nutritional status, through knowledge creation, the dissemination of science based information, the promotion of best practice in the delivery of care and the provision of high-quality education. The European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition's success is based on the enthusiasm and engagement of its membership that contribute extensive volunteer work to support child health, while maintaining a positive spirit of collaboration and friendship, which characterises this Society. This article aims at describing recent developments and the current situation of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition.