We have received your request for information about how Dr. Aronson assesses your adoption referral. Please read through the following comprehensive information and call the office if you have any questions at 212.207.6666.
Dr. Aronson has worked with adoptions in a wide variety of countries around the world and is the adoptive parent of two children from Vietnam and Ethiopia. When you receive your referral from any country (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Moldova, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Vietnam…etc.) please go to www.orphandoctor.com to download the Review
Intake Form (RIF) on her homepage. After you have completed the RIF, please send your medical records and photographs (video, DVD if you have them) to Dr. Aronson’s office by email (orphandoctor@gmail.com), Make sure that everything you send is clearly labeled with your last name (if you are using several last names, please indicate all your names).
Please include your credit card information on your Review Intake Form or a check made out to Dr. Jane Aronson. Reviews will not be processed until payment is received. There are no refunds once the review process has begun.
Click here to view the fee schedule.
After Dr. Aronson has received your Review
Intake Form, medical history and photographs and payment, she will assess the child. In addition, you will receive an envelope from the office with the pre-Denver questionnaire and other documents pertinent to the country of origin.
Dr. Aronson will e-mail the initial assessment usually within three business days. After you receive your e-mailed assessment, you have the option for a phone consultation to discuss your questions and concerns. Please email your questions prior to the phone consult so that Dr. Aronson can focus on these questions. Please note that Dr. Aronson prefers that both parents/partners are present at the time of the phone referral review.
Dr. Aronson performs phone consultations during her office hours. She asks that you call her at the designated time of the appointment on her office phone number (212.207.6666) between the hours of 10am and 4pm. If there is a time difference, please note that the appointment is for Eastern Standard Time.
Follow-up reviews can be accomplished by e-mail. When you receive updated information, e-mail it to Dr. Aronson. Follow-ups are inclusive in the aforementioned price and may take a week to process.
What to Expect From the Review
Dr. Aronson will first comment on whether the referral looks like a standard medical record from the particular country. Each country does have a set style for pre-adoption medical information. Dr. Aronson will assess the child’s growth and development, as well as any medical concerns, using the video/photos and medical records which are provided to you from the adoption agency. As a specialist in medical records from countries abroad, she will act as an interpreter of medical language. She will be able to tell you which diagnoses are standard in other countries and which ones may be cause for concern. She cannot predict the long-term physical or developmental health of a child.
The video is useful to assess development of a child, based on their demonstrated abilities for their age with delays based on time spent in the orphanage. Close-up photos of the child’s face are used to determine if there are any facial features of FAS. FAS can only be assessed only in Caucasian children. (You should read about FAS on the following link: http://www.orphandoctor.com/services/assessment/FASphotos.html). The measurements are used to assess a child’s growth, and it is helpful if there are three sets: birth and current measurements and one set in between. The medical records show the blood work, and vaccinations given to the child, as well as the medical history during the stay at the orphanage.
Dr. Aronson will not tell you whether or not to adopt a child. She will put the referral in a risk category: average, mild, moderate, or extreme, depending on the number of medical issues. Dr. Aronson does not tell families to accept or not accept a referral on the basis of specific requested information that has not been included in the initial referral.
Average risk: 40% of evaluated cases
Child has no apparent medical diagnoses of concern. This does not mean that there are no medical issues for this child. It just means that there are no issues that are apparent. It has been demonstrated that children who are living in orphanages have many health issues such as failure to thrive, malnutrition, anemia, parasitosis, exposure to Tuberculosis, elevated lead levels, hepatitis B carriage, and other issues that may not be apparent in the pre-adoption record.
Mild risk: 30% of evaluated cases
One medical issue
Moderate risk: 15% of evaluated cases
Two medical issues
Extreme risk: 15% of evaluated cases
Three or more medical issues or one very complicated medical/developmental issue
You should be prepared to ask the adoption agency for updated measurements and/or clarification of medical diagnoses and blood work upon Dr. Aronson’s request. If you sign the consent for Dr. Aronson to send her assessment to the adoption agency, then the questions will be sent directly to the agency. This information may not be available, but the adoption agencies do their best to get updates; sometimes the information is just not available. She will review follow-up information, and then communicate with you via e-mail.
For those families who are traveling and doing “Blind Referrals”, all conversations with Dr. Aronson must be scheduled with one of her assistants. As Dr. Aronson sees patients in her office during the day, you should not expect to call from abroad and get her on the phone immediately. Patient care is the priority of the practice. You will be scheduled to speak to Dr. Aronson when she has time in the schedule. She is committed to the process and will make herself available.
Country-Specific Notes
Referrals from China: The medical, which is written in Chinese, is essential to the review, and must be included with your translated medicals.
Other Services available:
Vaccines for Travel can be administered in Dr. Aronson's office
Travel Preparation Class with prescriptions for travel abroad
Phone consult while you are abroad
Medical Evaluation on Arrival in the U.S.
Developmental Assessment on Arrival
Early Intervention Referrals with Advocacy by Dr. Aronson
Long-term Primary Pediatric Care for children of all ages
Post-Adoption consultations
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