With everything going on regarding COVID-19, the pediatric emergency medicine committee has been trying to keep Florida’s emergency physicians up to date regarding pediatric care. We started in early April with putting together a handout with all the information we had at that time regarding the coronavirus in the pediatric population. As things developed with the coronavirus, we too, had to keep the emergency medicine community updated. As a committee, we were able to put together an additional information guide in June regarding a multi-system inflammatory complex that results as a sequela of coronavirus. As a committee, we will continue to keep the emergency physicians of Florida updated regarding any further changes or any new disease processes.

The pediatric emergency medicine committee has had a virtual summer. Typically, the summer months are filled with conferences and speaking engagements. This year, we had to move everything to virtual. We started with CLINCON, putting together a series of lectures and virtual simulations regarding what to do with altered sensorium in the pediatric population. Though it was difficult moving to this format, like everything else going on, we had to move forward, adapt, and change to something that we may have to continue to do in order to reach the necessary audience. Overall, it was a success, and made us better prepared and organized for when Symposium by the Sea went virtual as well. Though we were planning on continuing with the theme of the altered sensorium, like everything else, we had a change in plans, and made it an opportunity to engage with Florida’s emergency physicians, providing more information regarding the coronavirus and pediatric population. As we move into fall, we will see what the combination of the coronavirus and influenza have in store for the pediatric population, and we will keep you abreast of any changes.

Despite everything going on in the emergency medicine community with coronavirus, we have not lost sight of our mission, which was to continue to raise the level of pediatric knowledge and awareness in emergency medicine for the state of Florida. Our own Dr. Shiva Kalidindi has taken it upon himself to create a committee to build a Florida-based pediatric emergency medicine curriculum. This was done to improve access to high-quality pediatric emergency medicine expertise with just-in-time learning for EM training programs across the state of Florida. They have already conducted a needs assessment that was performed by Dr. Carmen Martinez and Dr. Phyllis Hendry. It is evident that there is a need to augment the actual education across the state. Dr. Swan and Dr. Zeretzke volunteered to help conduct a more targeted needs assessment, and I will be developing an assessment tool. The plan is to develop a curriculum addressing the identified needs sometime in spring of 2021.

For this upcoming year, FCEP’s own Dr. Trisha Swan will be the chairperson for the pediatric emergency committee for national ACEP. We wish her the best in this challenging position and know that she will bring continued success to this committee the same way she did in the state of Florida. ■