Tuberculosis is a major cause of child morbidity and mortality globally. Young children are at particular risk of severe and disseminated disease following exposure to a person with tuberculosis. Public health and clinical services, including in Victoria, focus on early detection and treatment of both disease and infection. There have been recent developments that potentially strengthen and decentralise services for tuberculosis.
We are unleashing the power of data to improve child health. The first such Centre in Australia is a hive of potential and ideas, realising the shared vision of our campus partners. We are using data to advance and humanise many different perspectives of paediatric patient care.
Genetic conditions are the leading cause of death in children in high-income countries. Accurate and timely diagnosis is critical for being able to provide prognostic information and guide treatment, yet often takes many years.
Too often research evidence fails to inform practice or policy, and opportunities to improve children’s health and wellbeing are lost. The Melbourne Children’s Knowledge Translation and Research Impact Project, funded by the RCH Foundation, seeks to better understand campus KT and impact needs, and has developed and piloted strategies to advance knowledge translation, implementation and research impact.
Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumour of childhood. Despite multidisciplinary therapies offered by neurosurgery, radiation oncology and paediatric oncology through cooperative group clinical trials, there are significant late effects of therapy, including but not limited to neuroendocrine deficits, neurocognitive impairment and second malignant neoplasms
The WHO’s World Hearing Day theme on 3rd March 2021 is ‘Hearing care for all: screen, rehabilitate, communicate’. The Royal Children’s Hospital is home to the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) that has been delivering world-class universal hearing screening to Victorian babies for over a decade. Beyond screening, the RCH Audiology Clinic provides diagnostic care, and the Caring for Hearing Impaired Children (CHIC) Clinic delivers a multidisciplinary medical service that intersects with external audiology and early intervention services for hearing-impaired children beyond the hospital. Both VIHSP and CHIC are integrated with a childhood hearing loss research program at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to ensure evidence from research informs delivery of the best clinical care.
Advances in health and medical research are accelerating our understanding of disease mechanisms, and leading to new preventative interventions, diagnostic tools and novel therapeutic approaches that are transforming clinical care. Hence, there is an increasing need to better embed clinical research into clinical care delivered at the RCH and to support the development of individuals who are fluent in both clinical care and research.
The Kidney Flagship is an RCH Foundation funded project which aims to reduce the burden of genetic kidney disease on patients and their families by improving diagnosis, treatment and developing new targeted therapies. In this Grand Rounds we will show how our work has already impacted on the care of children with kidney disease and our plans for the future.
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.
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.
