Latest Posts

The Super Power Baby Project: The impact and implications of language in healthcare

The language we use with patients and families has a profound impact on them, and shapes their relationship with health professionals. In Victoria there is a large cohort of children with complex medical needs.  Many are seen at RCH by a wide variety of professionals, over many years.  In the care of these children, communicating effectively with them and their families can be as important as any medical therapy or procedure. Language can make the difference between a powerless family and an empowered one. It also enables health professionals to empathise better with their patients, improving patient outcomes and practitioner wellbeing.

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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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Australia’s refugee law and policy in a global context

Although Australia receives a disproportionately small share of the world’s refugees, the ‘problem’ of unauthorized boat arrivals has been a highly controversial and political one in recent decades.  In this Grand Round for Refugee week, Professor Michelle Foster, from the Melbourne Law School, will discuss the key problems with Australia’s current system of refugee protection, focusing in particular on mandatory indefinite detention.

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Impartial handling of health complaints for all Victorians

On the first of February 2017 the office of the Health Complaints Commissioner came into operation under new legislation, the Health Complaints Act 2016. This Act repealed the Health Services (Conciliation and Review) Act 1987 and thus replaced the previous office of the Health Services Commissioner with the Health Complaints Commissioner.

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New therapies for genetic diseases

This Grand Round will present data on the latest clinical trials in Friedreich ataxia, haemochromatosis and inherited skeletal disorders (achondroplasia and Schmid chondrodysplasia).

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Suspected child abuse: a forensic challenge

Television has brought forensic medicine into everyone’s living room, but the reality of the discipline is far removed from these dramas. But what really is clinical forensic medicine and what is this discipline’s role in the investigation of suspected child abuse?

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Paediatric MR PET imaging at the RCH: New insights in cancer and neurology

MR PET imaging is a new technology that allows the simultaneous acquisition of Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Images for clinical studies. It has provided invaluable diagnostic information in children with cancer, complex neurological problems and other conditions.

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