The Role of Psychologists in Pediatric Hospital Medicine.

The authors review the multiple roles of the pediatric psychologist in hospital medicine practice, which is commonly referred to as pediatric consultation-liaison (CL) psychology. A brief history of development of training of CL psychologists is discussed as well as current models of practice. The authors describe specific populations that CL psychologists assist in managing when hospitalized as well as how the CL psychologist can contribute to health care systems and public policy advocacy.

Dose-volume metrics and their relation to memory performance in pediatric brain tumor patients: A preliminary study.

Background: Advances in radiation treatment (RT), specifically volumetric planning with detailed dose and volumetric data for specific brain structures, have provided new opportunities to study neurobehavioral outcomes of RT in children treated for brain tumor. The present study examined the relationship between biophysical and physical dose metrics and neurocognitive ability, namely learning and memory, 2 years post-RT in pediatric brain tumor patients.

Procedure: The sample consisted of 26 pediatric patients with brain tumor, 14 of whom completed neuropsychological evaluations on average 24 months post-RT.