Advocacy in medicine represents a vital yet under-recognized career path and area of physician scholarship, including in pediatrics. Physician advocacy has been defined as “action by a physician to promote those social, economic, educational, and political changes that ameliorate the suffering and threats to human health and well-being that he or she identifies through professional work and expertise.” However, the outcomes reported from advocacy efforts often deviate from the traditional frameworks of original research or quality improvement (QI). This discrepancy in outcome reporting creates challenges to effectively conveying advocacy efforts in most peer-reviewed journals, despite these activities being widely considered as timely, impactful, and essential. As a result, advocacy efforts remain underrepresented in the peer-reviewed literature, and therefore, are often not considered in promotion criteria.
Registered: 03 February 2026
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Contact: Allison Black Email: [email protected]