The Five Essential Concepts of Developmental Medicine: A Medical Paradigm for Persons with Developmental Disabilities
By Philip B. May M.D., Henry Hood DMD, FADD, Matthew Holder MD, MBA, Rick Rader MD, FAAIDD, FAADM
Shortly after the landmark Surgeon General’s Report (2002), “Closing the Gap: A National Blueprint to Improve the Health of Persons with Mental Retardation,” the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD) was established. The Academy elected Dr. Phil May as its first president. Dr. May is both an internist and endocrinologist and has spent his career treating, researching, teaching and advocating for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Dr. May has mentored many clinicians who have become leaders in the field of developmental medicine. In 2006, Dr. May published “The Five Essential Concepts of Developmental Medicine.” It served as the framework for understanding the complex network of neurodevelopmental disabilities and disorders. HELEN Journal is pleased to provide this classic doctrine as a primer for the current crop of young clinicians and students coming up through the ranks as it is as relevant today as it was 16 years ago.
Introduction by Henry Hood DMD, FADD
Any clinician working with any given patient population must have available to them a biomedically-based conceptual framework that provides a theoretical basis for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of that patient population. This is especially true for those clinicians who treat what is perhaps the most clinically challenging patient population imaginable –patients with neurodevelopmental disorders.
The Five Essential Concepts provide the clinician with just such a conceptual framework. They teach developmental physicians, developmental dentists, and other healthcare professionals how to think about, how to talk about, and, most important, how to care for patients with neurodevelopmental disorders in an organized fashion.