Parents’ requests for a gastrostomy, tracheostomy, or assisted ventilation for children with profound disabilities may raise ethical concerns about children’s interests, parental decision-making, and health care costs. The underlying concern for some relates to the perceived quality of life for such children.
The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Morbidity and Mortality (CCOPMM) reviews every obstetric, neonatal, child and adolescent death in Victoria. This Grand Round will describe the functions and history of CCOPMM, together with a review of the epidemiology of child deaths in Victoria over the last 30 years reviewed by the committees.
Education remains one of the most powerful social determinants of adult health outcomes. Yet in 2015 one in five children started school with areas of developmental vulnerability. Paediatric health care providers play a vital role in understanding the impact of developmental variation and illness on school participation and engagement.
Politicians and policy makers increasingly focus time and resources on measuring efficiency, accrediting health care processes and public reporting, all of which have a weak evidence base. In contrast, there is growing international evidence that clinical repositories and benchmarking using patient outcome data can drive improvements in health care quality and efficiency and in patient outcomes.
“Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century” according to The Lancet in 2015. Research shows that health professionals are generally aware of the threats of climate change to health. But what is the role of the medical professional? This talk will highlight possible avenues for both individual and collective action.
Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to raise awareness on the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the contributions made by refugees to Australian society.
Bone health is an important consideration in many chronic health conditions in childhood. Issues of immobility, nutrition, pubertal delay and medication usage may adversely impact bone mass accrual, leading to potentially short and/or long term skeletal fragility, with high attendant morbidity.
Research into the role of music therapy in the care of hospitalised children provides evidence for reducing anxiety and agitation, and providing pain relief that enhances quality of life for children and their families. The music therapy team at RCH has contributed to this evidence-based research in children with cancer, cardiac problems, those undergoing rehabilitation or with complex chronic conditions
Wilms tumour (WT) is the second most common abdominal tumour in children. It has an excellent prognosis with a 5-year survival close to 90%. Nevertheless, the story is not finished, as we have to understand why 10% of children continue to have a poor prognosis.
Pediatric rapid response systems were first described right at RCH Melbourne in a paper published in 2005. The medical emergency team and the activation criteria described in that paper helped launch worldwide efforts to implement rapid response systems to reduce cardiac arrest and mortality, and inspired researchers to pursue efforts to refine and further improve systems to detect deteriorating patients. Now, 11 years after the original description, significant improvements in arrests and mortality have been described worldwide, yet children still experience preventable deterioration outside the ICU at many hospitals.
