Dr. Sergey Shushunov, pediatrician, received his medical degree in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1977. Soon after graduation he immigrated to the United States where he was trained in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care at the Universities of Illinois, Florida and Minnesota. He received American Board of Pediatrics certifications in general pediatrics in 1989 and in pediatric critical care in 1990. He worked for many years at different hospitals in the US, practicing and teaching Pediatric Critical Care medicine. Now Dr. Sergey Shushunov practice is located at City International Hospital, HCMC, Vietnam.

Did You Know That

-Pediatrics became a specialty in the US in 1930 when the American Academy of Pediatrics was founded with the idea that children have special developmental and health needs.

-Pediatricians devote much of their time to regular health examinations, as well as to preventive medicine. They routinely immunize children against such infectious diseases as influenza, meningitis, measles, mumps, pneumococcus, haemophilus, pertussis and chicken pox.

-Treating a child is not like treating a miniature adult. Pediatrics differs from adult medicine in many respects. The obvious body size differences are paralleled by maturational changes. The smaller body of an infant or neonate is substantially different physiologically from that of an adult. Congenital defects, genetic variance, and developmental issues are of greater concern to pediatricians than they often are to adult physicians.

-Another major difference between pediatrics and adult medicine is that children are minors and cannot make decisions for themselves. The issues of guardianship, privacy, legal responsibility and informed consent must always be considered in every pediatric procedure. In a sense, pediatricians often have to treat the parents and sometimes, the family, rather than just the child.