Health professional education: past, present and possibilities

The RCH Handbook is part of the history of education at the Royal Children’s Hospital. It is 56 years old (1st ed 1964). The Handbook is a trusted guide to managing common and serious childhood illnesses, widely used by students and practitioners across medical, nursing, and allied health fields. In our 150th year we celebrate the launch of the 10th edition of the RCH Handbook while looking forward to what next.

Busting the Superhero Myth – Our Mental Health during a pandemic

For several months, we have experienced significant restrictions on how we live and work. Whilst Victoria’s strict lockdown protocols are working to suppress the virus, for many of us, social isolation has taken a toll on mental health.  Our new reality, and the social, mental and emotional deprivation that accompanies it, highlights that what we do in life and who we do it with, are critical to how we feel.   

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.

COVID-19: Are the Kids Really OK?

Data from around the world consistently shows that COVID-19 is essentially a mild disease in children. However, the indirect effects of COVID-19 may have a more profound effect than the direct effects of the infection.
We will hear from 3 speakers on the global and clinical aspects, and the broader social, education and wellbeing impact of COVID-19 on children.

Social media and health promotion: Lessons from the RCH National Child Health Poll

Social media holds considerable potential for health promotion activities, as it addresses some of the barriers in traditional methods of health communication by increasing accessibility, interaction and engagement with the community. Now in its fourth year, the RCH National Child Health Poll has evolved to increasingly use novel and innovative strategies to engage parents and carers via RCH digital channels.

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.

Generation Victoria (GenV) Solving complex issues affecting children and adults – a whole-of-state cohort with whole-of-campus implications

GenV’s vision is to help solve complex issues affecting today’s children and adults through an entire Australian state becoming a single platform that enhances research speed, capacity and translation. Led from the Melbourne Children’s Campus, the GenV Cohort will be open to the families of all 170,000 Victorian newborns over 2021-2. At its foundation are consent; existing geospatial, clinical and administrative data; biosamples; GenV-specific data; and melding observational and intervention design

Digital Health on the Melbourne Children’s Campus: innovation, evidence and translation

Global demand for accessible, evidence-based and cost-effective healthcare is rising. Advances in technology together with its increasing use and declining costs have provided valuable opportunities for greater application of digital applications in healthcare. However, only a small percentage of digital apps have undergone clinical validation, and healthcare organisations are not traditionally equipped to innovate, evaluate and implement digital technology solutions.

Patient Reported Outcomes in children’s health services: why should we use them and how can they be embedded in Epic?

Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) have been used for decades in clinical trials, observational studies, population health surveys, and for estimates of quality of life in economic evaluations. However, the use of PROs as part of routine measurement in clinical settings is relatively new.  In this Grand Round, 3 speakers will discuss the use of PROs in the UK, in mental health at RCH and integrating PROs into the EMR.