Latest Posts

Family Violence – Listening to and learning from young people with lived experience

 ‘Family violence is rarely seen or understood through the eyes of children and young people. Way too often, we are the ones you leave behind.’ 

This Grand Round invites you to listen to young people with lived experience of family violence and see family violence through their eyes. We will be joined by Berry Street’s Y-Change Lived Experience Consultants to learn how practitioners can better support children and young people with experiences of family violence and understand what can make a difference to a child or young person in your care.

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The pathogens causing child pneumonia: An ever-changing spectrum

It is World Pneumonia Day on November 12th. Pneumonia remains a leading cause of death among young children despite the widespread introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common respiratory virus that may cause severe respiratory disease especially in infants. We will describe the findings of a systematic review, which was part of a series for WHO, which aimed to determine the common aetiology of severe and non-severe community acquired pneumonia among children 1 month to 9 years of age in low- and middle-income countries globally. We will also discuss the impact of the global pandemic on the epidemiology of respiratory infections with a focus on RSV.

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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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Vernon Collins Oration – The ethical life of the hospital

The Vernon Collins Oration was established in 1981, in memory of Professor Vernon Collins, the first Medical Director of The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.  Vernon Collins held this position from 1949 to 1960 and then became the first Professor of Child Health in the University of Melbourne, before retiring in 1974. The 2021 Vernon Collins Oration will be delivered by Professor Lynn Gillam AM, an experienced clinical ethicist and Academic Director of the Children’s Bioethics Centre at The Royal Children’s Hospital.  

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The legacy of acute kidney injury: Strategies to mitigate long-term risk

The long-term outcomes of acute kidney injury are an area of increasing interest, with epidemiological studies reporting a significantly increased long-term risk of chronic kidney disease, hypertension, dialysis dependence, and death following an episode of acute kidney injury.

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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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Involving children in clinical decision-making: Why it matters and how best to do it

This plenary session is named in honour of the recent Clinical Director of the Centre for Bioethics, A/Prof Jill Sewell. Professor Douglas Diekema will open the National Paediatric Bioethics Conference by considering the ethical underpinning of our conference theme, ‘Deciding with Children’. Deciding with Children is more than a vague abstraction or aspirational goal of children’s healthcare workers. Prof Diekema will demonstrate that Deciding with Children matters to the well-being of children and is a vital part of healthcare delivery. He will build on this foundation, using his clinical experience, to consider how best to authentically involve children in healthcare decisions. 

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