General interest

The Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Service: Leadership and innovation for children with complex colorectal conditions

The Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Service was created in 2019 to provide world-class care for children and families affected by complex colorectal conditions. Through the combined support of the RCH Foundation, the Victorian Government and the Federal Government, the service acts as a national leader for children born with anorectal malformations or Hirschsprung disease, and children affected by chronic constipation. 

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Measuring and moving on the child and youth mental healthcare system: Reflections from Canada

This session will describe a 10 year initiative to develop a data and evaluation platform for children and youth mental health and service delivery in Ontario, Canada’s largest province.  The session will touch on the advantages and limitations of using routinely collected health system data for surveillance and performance measurement, and challenges in evaluating a large, system wide policy strategy to improve early identification and coordination of care for children and youth with mental health disorders. 

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3.6 million and counting: Victoria’s Newborn bloodspot screening program – recent innovations and future directions

Victoria’s newborn bloodspot screening (NBS) program commenced in 1966 with screening for phenylketonuria, and from the early 1970’s close to 100% of newborns were being screened. Improvements in analytical and genetic testing technologies saw the successive introduction of screening for congenital hypothyroidism, cystic fibrosis and 22 metabolic conditions. Today, Victoria’s NBS program detects about 80 babies per year with these conditions, preventing life-long debilitating outcomes and even death.

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NAIDOC Week The Uluru Statement from the Heart and the significance to children

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an extraordinary united and unifying call and a unique opportunity for a better Australia. It will be talked about at length in the next few years as we move towards a referendum for Constitutional reform. The result will be crucial for child health in this country, so child health professionals need to be informed.    

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Designing better trials with patients who have glomerular disease: Using consensus methods to develop a core outcome set

Trials typically report outcomes that lack relevance to patients and caregivers trying to make treatment decisions. Also, outcomes are often reported inconsistently which impairs evidence synthesis. Core outcome sets can address these important shortcomings with current trial outcomes by developing a set of outcomes to be routinely reported in all trials in a particular field.

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Launching the Paediatric Academy, one place to connect and collaborate

We are excited to launch the Department of Paediatrics Academy, a community of practice on a shared platform across University of Melbourne, RCH and MCRI, as well as collaborating organisations. 

In the digital world we live in now, communities of practice can be highly effective where the working context can be complex and ambiguous. This presentation will highlight the functions of a community of practice, learn firsthand from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Academy, as well as local experience from RCH Centre of Health Analytics. 

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Utilising simulation to improve organisational safety and processes

Traditionally being considered a method for training healthcare professionals in basic and advanced life support, Simulation Based Education in healthcare has grown over the past 30 years and is now recognised to be effective in many other aspects of healthcare training. Focusing on enhancing patient safety, simulation initially concentrated on clinical procedural skills training and immersive deteriorating patient simulations, as well as simulations to enhance communication between staff and with patients and their families.

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