As the budget belt tightens and patients keep coming, we as health professionals need to think about smarter ways to care for children and their families. In 2012, the MCRI Healthcare Innovation Group (led by A/Professor Harriet Hiscock), conducted a ‘snapshot’ audit of healthcare innovations across 7 diverse RCH departments.

There is much good innovation happening at RCH, but often within a departmental silo without dissemination. Come and hear about 3 novel innovations from the Departments of Nursing (Sally Lima), Nutrition (Kay Gibbons) and Orthopaedics (Leo Donnan). Learn about innovations that could be adapted for your department, and potential next moves for healthcare innovations on Campus

Speakers:

Associate Professor Harriet Hiscock is a paediatrician at the Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children’s Hospital and NHMRC postdoctoral research fellow. She is the leader of the Healthcare Innovation Affinity Group at MCRI.

Harriet’s work involves developing and evaluating interventions for common child problems including infant colic, behaviour problems, and sleep problems in children. She has received over $5 million in competitive research funding, and has published over 60 peer reviewed publications. She leads the Australian Paediatric Research Network – a national network of over 400 paediatricians who participate in research into common, high impact child health problems.

Sally Lima is a nurse consultant in nursing research. She has been at the RCH for 25 years. For the past 5 ½ years she has been part of the nursing education and research team and midway through her PhD at the University of Melbourne. The topic of her thesis is evaluating a competency framework for nurses new to paediatric nursing.

Kay Gibbons is Manager of Nutrition & Food Services at RCH. She is a Fellow of the Dietitians Association of Australia and holds an appointment in MCRI and in several universities. At RCH she is responsible for clinical dietetics, including the HEN program and for food services, including Formula Room. Her interest in clinical and operational aspects of infant feeding raised her interest in the Department of Business & Innovation funding opportunity for development of an infant feeding teat.

Associate Professor Leo Donnan (MBBS, FRACS, FAOrthA) is the Chief of Surgery and Director of Orthopaedics at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is a Paediatric and Adult Orthopaedic Surgeon who specialises in limb reconstruction, arthoplasty, adolescent sports injuries and foot and ankle surgery. He is recognised for his work in deformity correction and limb lengthening and has lectured extensively in these areas in Australia, Asia and Europe. He has a strong research interest in the area of e-Learning and the use of animation for the education of patients and health professionals. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and a member of the State Trauma Committee.