Prevention and Therapeutic Innovation in the Management of Child Health.

The topics of prevention and therapeutic innovation in the management of infant, child, and adolescent health have progressively acquired global importance for their direct effects on the lifelong health and well-being of populations. If appropriately implemented, they have the potential to positively impact various areas of the public health sector, generating beneficial outcomes, which include major economic implications for local healthcare systems. Responding to the emerging preventive and health promotion needs of infants, children, and adolesents has become a priority for pediatrics, and together with therapeutic innovation, represents an important part of any strategic healthcare plan. The main objective of pediatric practice is to prevent disease and disability through primary, secondary, and tertiary methods, and where prevention is not possible to provide up-to-date evidence-based treatment to optimize the health and well-being of the child and family. Prevention encompasses a range of factors including prenatal health, newborn screening, nutrition, early assessment and treatment, vaccine development, a healthy lifestyle including obesity prevention, physical activity, child surveillance, child protection, and promotion of children's rights to health, equity, and social justice. This commentary briefly discusses prevention and therapeutic innovation in pediatrics, with the aim to further raise the attention of pediatricians to these topics, and to the importance of pursuing both an effective continuing exchange of high-quality clinical information, including basic science, and the promotion of efficient international collaboration in clinical practice, education, and research.