First Screening Project

The First Screening Evaluations are designed to help:

• Primary care physicians assess the relative importance of commonly encountered signs or symptoms of illness.
• Pediatric subspecialists determine the appropriate urgency for scheduling assessment of referred patients.
• Patients place symptoms or signs in a realistic perspective with regard to whether they indicate a serious disorder.

If the First Screening Evaluation is normal, primary care physician may want to follow the patients and reassure their families about the normal initial findings, thus reducing patient and parental anxiety and expenses. In some situations, parental anxiety may lead to a referral to a pediatric specialist despite normal First Screening Evaluation. However, if First Screening Evaluation indicates an abnormality, referral to a pediatric subspecialist can be expedited and the initial visit with the pediatric subspecialist can be more productive. Moreover, pediatric subspecialists will be able to evaluate patients more effectively since important information from the First Screening Evaluation will be available and a more focused diagnostic workup can be instituted thus expediting implementation of appropriate treatment. In this manner, the primary care physician, pediatric subspecialist and, most importantly the patients will benefit from utilization of the First Screening Evaluations.

First Screening Evaluations

PDF of full First Screening Evaluation Project booklet.

Comments or questions on this project can be directed to Dinesh Pashankar, MD at 203-785-4649 or Dinesh.Pashankar@yale.edu.