Pedriatic Wellness Group
The Pedriatic Wellness group is a pediatric and obstetrical medical practice in Redwood City affiliated with Sequoia Hospital , Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital , and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital . Since this partner is pediatric and obstetrical medical practice, the client list is comprised of children, parents, and expecting parents. PWG has a mission to endorse modern medicine with a family-friendly environment; they do this through the values of compassion, empathy, and respect hence creating a positive relationship with the child's parents and the child (Pediatric Wellness Group 2015). Additionally, PWG partnered with the University of California San Francisco in 2017. This partnership gave PWG financial backing, and enabled the doctors of the practice to have privileges at UC hospitals in San Francisco and the East Bay (PWG and UCSF 2017). Nevertheless the original location of the practice remains open in Redwood City, California, and consists of three board certified pediatricians ( M.D’s) and one D.O. (M.D.’s are medical doctors; Board Certified Pediatricians are medical doctors who have done residencies in pediatrics, and passed state tests certifying them in that field. An O.D. is a Osteopath who has a medical education that focuses on holistic health.) The Paediatric Wellness Group offers a medical home service for their patients: their primary care is “accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family centred, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective”(Pediatric Wellness Group 2015). Besides these services, they provide complimentary 101 baby classes for all expectant parents.
The project presented by PWG is the creation of new, more child-friendly stadiometer. The stadiometer measures a patient’s height, and although there are various different models, the devices are all very similar in construction and mechanism. Since children often resist being measured, and do not stay still, PWG has requested a change in the method and mechanism of measurement of the stadiometer so that the measuring in under 10 seconds. The potential this project has is endless since if a more efficient stadiometer were to be developed, every modern hospital/clinic would use it. That being said, the change would be pretty minimal in intensity giving this project somewhat less utility value than one might expect. Optimizing a simple procedure, however, for those who need it most, children who are growing, is a worthy goal, and I am interested in helping accomplish it.
