Joav Merrick 
Chronic Disease and Disability in Childhood 

Looking back on history and especially medical history, children born with significant congenital anomalies, genetic and metabolic diseases or disabilities perished at an early age, and very few survived into adolescence and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis and many other diseases were fatal. Today with advances in medical knowledge and technology, many of these patients now live a longer life and sometimes even close to the average life expectancy for the country. In this way, childhood diseases have become lifelong disease or in other words, health care providers in adult medicine such as family practitioners, internists, cardiologists and so on now have to deal with individuals suffering from unfamiliar diseases that used to be only seen in pediatric care. Today, still many pediatricians all over the world find themselves caring for forty-year-olds with for example congenital heart disease or cystic fibrosis, because health care transition to adult care has not been possible. Leading healthcare professionals from many corners of the globe and institutions in Israel presented their work and clinical practice on a wide range of topics related to pediatric and adolescent chronic diseases and human development.