Research

Getting up to speed on qualitative research

Qualitative research has quietly and gradually moved from fringe to mainstream in health research. In this presentation, clinical and health services researchers from across Melbourne Children’s Campus will discuss the ways in which qualitative research can add value to health care research, and describe some of their own qualitative studies. Come along to gain an insight into the research that is happening around you, think about how qualitative research might work in your area of interest, and get up to speed on resources available to support and assist clinicians in performing rigorous qualitative research.

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Spotlight on CEBU: Biostatistics at the Melbourne Children’s

For more than 20 years, the RCH campus has boasted one of the pre-eminent biostatistics groups in Australia, as reflected in a recent international conference that was brought to Melbourne (and the southern/eastern hemisphere!) for the first time in its 39 years by an organising committee led by CEBU biostatisticians.

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David Danks Seminar: The contribution of the Gambia to improving child health in the developing world

Research throughout the small African county of The Gambia has provided many important lessons for the future of Global health. This seminar will discuss The contributions made by scientists working in the Gambia to reductions in child mortality, including demonstration of the impact of insecticide treated bednets, Haemophilus influenzae and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in reducing child morbidity and mortality.

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Personalised care of children with medical complexity and their families:

Dr Doug Bryan is a paediatrician who has worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital since 1970. During those 48 years the prognosis and life prospects for children with chronic and complex medical conditions have improved dramatically. This has occurred partly from the discovery of new interventions but also in large part to the development of systems of care that specifically focus on the care and needs of these children and their families.

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The challenges of implementing antimicrobial stewardship in Australia

This Grand Round will provide an overview of the current status on the use of antimicrobials in Australia, using a One Health perspective. Professor Thursky will describe the challenges facing prescribers and health care organisations in ensuring the judicious use of antimicrobials, and will showcase some of the research underway by the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship.

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The developmental trajectory of clinical evidence: From RCT to living systematic review

Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) is a newer subspecialty in child health starting in Canada in the 1980’s. To build the evidence base for clinical care, single center randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with small sample sizes were conducted. However, this led to potential of poorly designed and conducted trials with inadequate statistical power, which often were not published (if they gave negative answers). Systematic reviews of RCTs started to improve the situation, along with the establishment of research networks performing large RCTs provided more definitive guidance for the clinician.

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Creating kidney tissue from stem cells

A detailed understanding of how an organ develops at the level of the gene, cell and tissue is critical for both accurate modelling of disease, and advances in regenerative medicine.

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Food Allergy Epidemic – is it unique to Australia

The rise in food allergy in developed countries is an intriguing phenomenon that has captured the attention of both the medical research community and the media. Although we need to be circumspect about the extent to which it has risen and which countries are most affected, there is little doubt that IgE mediated food allergy and anaphylaxis were rarely reported 50 years ago but are now commonly described. The drivers for this modern day epidemic are poorly understood and indeed it is not clear whether this phenomenon is part of a 2nd wave epidemic of allergy following on from the general rise in allergic disease that was noted around the world at the end of the 21st century or whether the new food allergy epidemic is due to a new set of unique factors

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The new frontiers of medical engineering

The development of new medical technology requires the collaboration of engineering, IT, medicine, science and industrial design. The Monash Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME) fosters the development of new medical technologies across the whole spectrum of medical science. A prime example of this is the bionic vision device which has been developed over the last five years. This is a ‘brain-machine’ device to restore visual function to blind individuals. I will be presenting this research project but also some of the other exciting areas of medical engineering including the development of replacement body parts such as the ear and the trachea using bio-printing techniques and ‘laboratory on-a-chip’ technology. There is great scope for medical engineering in paediatrics.

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