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.
Never in the field of health was so much learned by so many in so few months. This, the opening Grand Round for 2021 will recap the lessons from last year, take stock of where we are in February 2021, 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. Topics will include: Why is COVID-19 less severe in children? What is the role of schools in transmission and what is the impact of new variants? Vaccines: who, when and how? The indirect effects of Covid: poverty and malnutrition, measles, loss of education, and child marriage.
recision (or personalised) Health is being promoted as the future of healthcare. Indeed, precision health is the key theme of the latest MCRI strategic plan and the focus of much attention on campus. One of the key tools in precision health is genomics. During this Grand Round, Prof Colin Robertson will reflect on his extensive experience as a clinician-scientist in paediatric respiratory medicine. In particular, he will focus on the successes and failures of genomics in conditions such as cystic fibrosis and asthma, and he will contend that the key to using genomics to improve patient care is a strong understanding of physiology in health and disease.
For several months, we have experienced significant restrictions on how we live and work. Whilst Victoria’s strict lockdown protocols are working to suppress the virus, for many of us, social isolation has taken a toll on mental health. Our new reality, and the social, mental and emotional deprivation that accompanies it, highlights that what we do in life and who we do it with, are critical to how we feel.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to re-organize and re-conceptualize many aspects of our lives. In this Grand Round, I will start with some general thoughts about these changes. Then, I will focus specifically on the challenges that the pandemic creates for the way that we oversee and regulate clinical research. I will speculate about whether some of these changes represent a better way of doing things and thus ought to change the way we practice after the pandemic.
Creating a preferred future implies vision, thoughtfulness and actions. It requires knowledge and skills that are developed over time. To craft a future for ourselves or to contribute to the crafting of another’s future, means we need to think and act creatively and thoughtfully.
It is well established that kids get less sick from COVID-19 than adults. However, what do we know about the extent infected children contribute to spreading the virus?
With some areas of Melbourne approaching their third week of lockdown and widespread community transmission, how do we make decisions about when it’s safe to reopen schools and what can we do to prevent kids from transmitting the virus? At Melbourne’s largest children’s hospital, we will hear what the commonest conditions are that are causing kids to get sick during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
COVID-19 is almost always a mild disease in children. Adults are much more likely to become very unwell or die than children. Why is this so?
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.
