#100Words Project Advocates for Child, Family Health and Well-Being

In February 2017, pediatricians and health advocates at Cincinnati Children’s began gathering stories from families to illustrate the impact of changes in healthcare funding on children, families and providers.

The effort was part of the #100Words Project, sponsored by the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), designed to help lawmakers understand what families face as legislators debate the future of healthcare and other social welfare issues.

Ray Bignall, MD, clinical fellow in Nephrology and Hypertension, and Andrew Beck, MD, MPH, Hospital Medicine, have gathered some 50 de-identified stories so far for the project. Each story, of 100 words or less, is being shared with child advocacy groups, and with elected officials in local, state and federal government. The stories were intended to highlight the work being done to care for Ohio’s children, and to encourage taking a stand for policies that will keep them safe.

“You can cite statistics when making a case for a cause,” says Bignall, who is also a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral research fellow in the Center for Treatment Adherence and Self-Management at Cincinnati Children’s, “but sharing personal accounts of how individual lives are affected by lawmakers’ decisions can drive a point home on a visceral level.”

The two doctors worked with a diverse team of faculty, fellows, and other pediatric providers, in partnership with the Ohio chapter of the AAP, to collect stories about how changes in healthcare funding are impacting pediatric patients, families, physicians and researchers. The stories are about real consequences for real people involving government policy changes, poverty, immigration and research funding.

Although the #100Words Project is meant to help legislators better understand the consequences of their decisions, Bignall and Beck learned as well.

“We’ve been generally aware of certain policies,” says Beck, “but have learned more of the specifics as certain protections have been threatened. We have to be knowledgeable enough to have effective conversations with patients, colleagues and lawmakers.”

In recognition of his efforts, Bignall received the prestigious William Cotton Pediatrician Advocate Award at the 2017 annual meeting of the Ohio Chapter of the AAP.

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