Do you dare to prescribe movies in Pediatrics?

The project “Cine y Pediatría” started in January 2010 within a blog called Pediatría basada en pruebas. Since then more than 280 posts have been written by the author Dr. Javier González de Dios, one every week, a total of 280 during the last five and a half years. “Cine y Pediatría”, which started being a web-blog, crossed borders from the digital world and became a series of real books, with a compilation of the posts been published successively in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. This Project has had a great welcome not only among the pediatricians but also the general public interested in education, cinema, etc. The project is still alive, with more to come.

“Cine y Pediatría” was initially a Dr. Gonzalez de Dios’ personal experience, but thanks to the Internet and its spreading power, it soon became a collective project involving the industry leaders. Experiences in scientific Pediatrics’ conferences (national and international), experience in teaching activities (undergraduate, graduate and continuing education), experience in scientific publications (pediatric and non- pediatric) and, of course, we have also been present at film festivals, mainly in the Festival Internacional de Cine de Alicante in the last four editions.

Thanks to the hard and constant work, together with the effort of delivering a top quality content, Dr. Javier González de Dios has become a member of the Asociación Española de Médicos Escritores y Artistas (ASEMEYA). The inaugural speech took place on December 15, 2014, in the Organización Médica Colegial (Madrid), surrounded by colleagues, friends and family. “A dream has come true”, he says referring to it.

The inaugural speech, called "Do you dare to prescribe movies in Pediatrics?” took place together with two great friends and teachers of language: the laudatio was made by Dr. Jose Ignacio de Arana Amurrio (pediatrician doctor) and the conversatio was presented by Dr. Fernando A. Navarro (medical translator).

The aim of this article is to present Dr. González de Dios’ opening speech in ASEMEYA and answer some key questions regarding “Cine y Pediatría” such as: what, why, for whom and how. And promote the cinema as an opportunity to improve the relationship between health professionals and patients, to improve the humanization and to open the bioethical debate. In Pediatrics it is important not only to prescribe modern and sophisticated diagnostic tests and treatments, but also movies (old and new), films that help to understand disease, improve the mourning, to humanize care and improve the relationship between health professionals and patients.