Medical Evaluations of Suspected Child Victims

The most thorough model of health service delivery to an allegedly abused child is a comprehensive examination by a physician with specialized training in diagnosing and treating medical child abuse issues. Such specialized physicians, unfortunately, do not exist in large numbers in every community, and are not equally distributed geographically throughout the state.

Physicians who may serve in the role of Expert Witness regarding the medical examination of a child for whom physical or sexual abuse has been alleged must have additional specialized training for that purpose. A few physicians in Georgia have such specialized training and are functioning independently in clinics, hospitals, and practices scattered throughout the state. One possible approach to addressing the systemic shortage of appropriate service delivery to abused children is to develop a network of expert physician specialists throughout the state.

Such is the purpose of a newly developing project entitled Georgia Child Abuse Resource and Evaluation System (GA CARES). These experts will have ready access to each other's expertise, and each can continually refine an approach to the medical examination of suspected victims that can become increasingly standardized and effective. Such goals are the intention of GA CARES, which will eventually link centers of medical expertise throughout the state through the use of telemedicine.