MCRI

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.

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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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COVID-19: An Update: What have we learnt over the last 12 months?

Never in the field of health was so much learned by so many in so few months. This Grand Round will recap the lessons from last year, take stock of where we are in February 2022, describe the complex situation with vaccines, and look to what the year might hold for the pandemic and children in Australia and countries around the world. 

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Double agents: adventures as a clinician and scientist

Through a significant contribution from the RCH Foundation, the Clinician Scientist Fellowship program supports doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to undertake research up to 2 days a week for up to 5 years. The Fellowship enables talented, clinically qualified professionals who have gained a higher research degree to pursue academic research alongside clinical practice.

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Covid-19 in India and South Africa – Back of the queue or leading the world?

“Vaccine inequity – The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure, and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”    
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The availability of effective vaccines for the prevention of covid-19 has led to an unseemly competition as countries rushed to sign deals with manufacturers, often outbidding each other for access, to the exclusion of poorer countries. In high income countries 60% of people have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine, while in low income countries the figure is 3%.

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Delta in Kids- what we do and don’t know

We have a National Roadmap, which includes COVID-19 vaccine coverage targets for the easing of restrictions.  But how do children and adolescents fit into this, with regard the direct and indirect effects of Delta on their health and well-being?

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Reproductive genetic carrier screening through the ages

Reproductive carrier screening has been possible since the 1970s. Initially conducted by testing of blood analytes for carrier status for haemoglobinopathies and Tay Sachs disease, screening for an ever increasing number of conditions became possible by genetic testing from the late 1980s. The advent of genomic sequencing means that it is now possible to screen over 1000 genes, a process called expanded carrier screening.

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Working together to optimise children’s mental health: The Campus Mental Health Strategy

Mental Health is an issue of growing concern across the community. This has been amplified through the COVID-19 pandemic. Child mental health is also an ongoing priority for the Melbourne Children’s Campus (MCC) and its three partners. The RCH treats many vulnerable patient groups (e.g., children with chronic illness, neurodevelopmental disorders, psychosocial challenges) with elevated risk of psychological and mental health difficulties. This extends across our inpatient and outpatient services and into the community. Despite this, mental health services can be fragmented and difficult to access. 

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