General interest

Design for Health Equity: Lessons from health literacy

This Grand Round will consider how human-centered design, applied to the health system and informed by a health-literacy framework, may help advance health equity.  We will review evidence that includes inter-disciplinary scholarship (e.g., behavioral science, computer science, clinical epidemiology) in the areas of obesity prevention, promoting school readiness, chronic-illness management and the care of children with special health care needs.

.

Whistle while you wheeze

Wheezing in childhood is extremely common, nearly 50% of children experience at least one episode of wheezing before the age of 6 years and wheeze is one of the commonest health problems requiring medical care. Children aged between 1-5 years account for 75% of these admissions with the median age of admission for acute attacks of wheeze being 3 years.

.

Adolescent Violence in the Home (AVITH)

Adolescent use of violence in the home (AVITH) refers to violence, or abusive or intimidating behaviours by a young person against their parent, carer, sibling or other family member within the home. The Victorian Family Violence Reform recognises violence used by young people as a distinct form of family violence, requiring unique responses to the inherent complexities of this form of family violence. I

.

The Ethical Significance of Play: Should we be playing more?

The opportunity to play is a fundamental interest of children and play is also recognised as a child’s right (article 31 of the Convention on Rights of the Child). Play is necessary for a child’s development, their healing and to mediate their experience of medical care and procedures.

.

Life as a clinician-scientist in General Medicine: Choose your own adventure

Interested in combining research with your clinical work? This Grand Round features clinician scientists from the Department of General Medicine. You will hear about their diverse career pathways and research programs, as well as how they balance research with their clinical work and other commitments.

.

Learning Health Systems

The term ‘learning health systems’ is not new. But widespread consensus that learning is crucial for health system performance is not matched by shared understanding of how health systems learn. The speaker will present ideas for such shared understanding based on a recent report by the WHO’s Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research.

.

COCOON – placing the baby and family at the centre of everything we do, every day

Illness and separation at a critical time for infant-parent attachment have adverse effects on infant and parent mental health. COCOON, which stands for the Circle of Care Optimising Outcomes for Newborns, is the patient-centred, family-integrated and baby-led model of care we designed to minimise these adverse effects in the complex medical and surgical NICU population, although the core principles can be applied in any healthcare setting.

.

Clinical and genetic challenges of mitochondrial disorders. What does Maeve’s Law offer?

The primary mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation disorders are characterized by clinical and genetic heterogeneity, limited treatment options, and poor outcomes.  Part of the complexity is because both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes may be involved.  Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited.  From a reproductive counselling perspective, couples with a family history of mitochondrial DNA disease often have limited reproductive options available to them.

.

Generation Victoria (GenV): Every baby. Every parent. Everybody.

Very large, truly population-representative pregnancy cohorts are rare internationally. Generation Victoria (GenV) is a whole-state cohort targeting all newborns (~150,000) and their parents over 2 full years. Components include (i) families recruited soon after birth, (ii) biospecimens from pregnancy onwards, (iii) extensive data linkage supplemented by (iv) minimal GenV collected data, all enabling (v) many additional integrated research studies, both observational and interventional.

.