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In New York State child abuse is ten times more common than children killed or injured in
car crashes and forty times more common than children with elevated blood lead levels.
Child abuse is an epidemic that has been overlooked as a public health concern. Medical
providers lack training in all aspects of identification and treatment of child abuse. Two-thirds
of the children who sustain abusive head trauma are seen in the week prior to these
injuries by a medical provider who missed other signs of abuse.
CHAMP works to improve the medical response to child abuse. It does this by addressing
two needs: the need for skilled medical evaluation of children suspected of being sexually
abused and better identification, treatment and reporting of child abuse by primary pediatric
and Emergency Department medical providers.
CHAMP improves the skills of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners with
pediatric experience through an education program that is the state’s only standardized
education for licensed providers regarding the identification, treatment and management of
suspected child sexual abuse cases. It consists of an online course, Evaluating Child Sexual
Abuse, and an observership with a child abuse expert. This content is also available to
medical residents through CHAMP Mentors affiliated with medical schools who offer the
Residency Training Program during a child abuse rotation.
CHAMP also improves the quality of care by offering free educational opportunities and
resources. This includes basic skills and educational case review webcasts that offer
continuing medical education (CME) credit. The CHAMP website posts research-based and
expert-reviewed Practice Recommendations and Procedural Checklists that can be
downloaded. Medical schools can download an Observed Structured Clinical Examination
(OSCE) case of physical abuse. The Test Your Knowledge feature gives child abuse medical
professionals an opportunity to evaluate and update their knowledge of 24 common and
uncommon conditions that are suspicious for abuse. They can read a case, answer a
question that tests their knowledge and then read the answer that is based on current
research or use the cases as a resource by accessing them by the diagnosis. The website
also offers coursework. The Evaluating Child Sexual Abuse course affords CME and
American Board of Pediatrics Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit for a small fee.
In addition to the CHAMP website, the companion site ChildAbuseMD.com offers the web
book Child Abuse Evaluation & Treatment for Medical Providers that provides tools to
diagnose and manage child and adolescent abuse victims. It is a resource for medical
professionals who do not have a background or expertise in child abuse pediatrics and are
striving to develop best practice standards for their patient care setting.
Every child deserves a skilled medical exam when child abuse is suspected.
