Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS), is the AAP’s practice-based research network.  For 20 years, the primary-care practitioners of PROS have collaborated to produce large-sample, national studies of interest to pediatrics.  With over 60 publications in the scholarly literature, and nearly 100 presentations at national professional meetings, PROS has developed a reputation as a leader in the effort to generate new pediatric knowledge.  Dissemination of new knowledge, however, is equally important in improving pediatric care.  Therefore, we have made dissemination of PROS study findings beyond the network a priority.

In this vein, we wanted to ensure that you were made aware of information published on the Secondary Sexual Characteristics in Boys (SSCIB) Study, as well as an article regarding the Child Abuse Recognition Experience Study (CARES) and Safety Check. The first article, which describes the examination of inter-rater reliability in the assessment of boys’ sexual maturity, was published in April 2009 in Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism.  Study findings included: 1) intraclass correlations assessing degree of inter-rater reliability for pubertal markers of 79 boys aged 8-14 ranged from 0.61 to 0.94; and 2) rater Kappas for signs of pubertal initiation ranged from 0.49 to 0.79, indicating generally very good agreement for identification of the initiation of pubertal maturation.

The PROS SSCIB Study was conducted by clinicians from PROS practices with collaboration from the National Medical Association’s Pediatric Research Network (NMAPedsNet) and the Academic Pediatric Association’s Continuity Research Network (CORNET).  Practices across 41 states and one Canadian practice enrolled boys 6-16 years of age between July 2005 and February 2010.  Data from 4,131 boys comprise the final study sample. This study was supported by Genentech Center for Clinical Research and Education, Genentech, Inc., Georgia Health Foundation, AAP Research in Pediatric Practice Fund, Pfizer and the American Academy of Pediatrics.