Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Michael Moritz, MD, for his recent publication in Frontiers in Pediatrics, titled, “Investigating the human spirit and spirituality in pediatric patients with kidney disease.” Moritz is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Nephrology, and is the Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs for Ambulatory Care and Innovation, as well as the Medical Director of Pediatric Dialysis and the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program. 
In this mini-review, co-written with Robert P. Woroniecki, MD, MS, of Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Moritz addresses the integral part the human spirit plays in the application of medicine and in the overall evaluation of health.
The co-authors write, “Validated questionnaires used in research for last several decades demonstrated an association of spirituality with clinical outcomes, coping, and quality of life in different adult chronic diseases,” but further note the effect of these sometimes intangible qualities in pediatric populations in the context of pediatric nephrology is mostly unexamined. This article represents a first attempt at examining the present gaps in knowledge about the human spirit and spirituality in pediatric nephrology.
After a review of the terms “soul” and “spirit” and their historical contexts, Moritz and Woroniecki investigate the role spirit plays in the medical arts. While the effect of spirit has been addressed in medical literature, the co-authors find, a recent systemic review of nearly 9,000 articles regarding spirituality and health in adults concludes that the subject is not assessed to nearly an adequate level, and even less so in pediatrics.
The article concludes with a brief call to action for future investigations to be conducted on the importance of the human spirit in health outcomes for all populations.
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