Vernon Collins Oration 2020 – Championing child rights amidst the chaos of COVID-19
Vernon Collins Oration 2020
Championing child rights amidst the chaos of COVID-19
Professor Elizabeth Elliott, AM
Clinical
Practical and ethical challenges in treatment of paediatric neurogenetic disorders
There has in recent years been a rapid increase in the number and complexity of clinical trials and novel therapies for neurogenetic conditions. Many of these conditions are individually rare, but their impact upon affected children and their families may be very severe. While the increasing awareness and availability of new treatments brings great hope and excitement for all involved in care of these children, it also presents significant challenges for clinicians and for patients and their families.
CAR T Cell Therapy for acute leukaemia: The RCH experience as the national paediatric referral centre
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells have revolutionised treatment for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) where standard therapies have failed. We reflect on our first 12 months as the first national paediatric referral centre providing CAR T cell treatment to children with relapsed or refractory ALL from Australia and New Zealand, and highlight the collective efforts and lessons for the hospital-wide CAR T cell team.
What’s COVID-19 doing to our blood vessels?
Blood-clotting complications are rapidly emerging as a significant part of the pathogenesis of COVID-19. There are reports of otherwise well people with COVID-10 having strokes, pulmonary emboli and heart attacks, and children with inflammation of their blood vessels. In recent weeks series of cases of a multi-system inflammatory condition, some resembling Kawasaki disease, have been reported in children in Europe, UK and USA.
Now and then: The Children’s Hospital in a half century of development: Dr John Court and the development of Diabetes care, Adolescent health, and Community relationships
Several Grand Rounds in 2020, the 150th year of the Children’s Hospital, will highlight the development of services, some looking back and looking forward. This opening Grand Round will review the innovations in diabetes, adolescent health, and links between the hospital and the community. Dr John Court was a paediatrician who had a key role in service development at The Royal Children’s Hospital from the late 1950’s to the 1990’s including research and clinical care.
Neonatal Seizures: To fit or not to fit?
Seizures are more common in the neonatal period than at any other time of life. Recognition of seizures in the NICU has changed in recent years with the introduction of bedside EEG tools. Increased recognition has raised the sceptre of whether all subclinical seizures need treatment with anticonvulsants.
Putting the “community” into community child health: 25 years of CCCH
For the last quarter of a century the Centre for Community Child Health has been working with families, communities and government to improve outcomes of all children by focusing on how to provide great care everywhere. This has included clinical services through to place-based service innovation across health and education.
Neuro-Oncology: The past, the present and the future
Neuro-Oncology had stagnated for several decades with little to no improvement in patient outcomes despite marked improvements in other areas of paediatric oncology. With the advent of advanced genomics and epigenomics and an explosion in our understanding of disease, we are finally seeing improvements. Dr Hansford will discuss the advances in modern Paediatric Neuro-Oncology and highlight the opportunities, problems and challenges as we push for better cure rates and quality of survivorship into the future for children with brain tumours.
Meeting the challenge of childhood cancer in Oceania: The WHO Global Initiative on Childhood Cancer “the million lives project”
Wherever the overall health of children improves, cancer inevitably emerges as a serious unmet health need. However, the spectacular improvement in the outcome of childhood cancer in Australia, and other high-income countries, is yet to be seen in in low- and middle-income countries, where 80% of the world’s children live.
Getting up to speed on qualitative research
Qualitative research has quietly and gradually moved from fringe to mainstream in health research. In this presentation, clinical and health services researchers from across Melbourne Children’s Campus will discuss the ways in which qualitative research can add value to health care research, and describe some of their own qualitative studies. Come along to gain an insight into the research that is happening around you, think about how qualitative research might work in your area of interest, and get up to speed on resources available to support and assist clinicians in performing rigorous qualitative research.