Don't Forget the Bubbles

Dr Andrew McDonald worked as a paediatrician for many years before entering the world of politics. In his years as Shadow Minister for Health he continued to practice one day a week. In both roles he saw the impact that socio-economic status has on health and continues to do what he can to make difference. Why should those that need access to excellent health care not be afforded more healthcare resources? If you can afford to pay you can get in to see a private paediatrician in a week but if you are relying on the public system it is a matter of months. Andrew McDonald challenges the audience to think on this, and who they are really helping.

It can be hard to stand up to the status quo but if you are serious about helping people you must.

Professor Fiona Wood, AM, is one of the worlds leading burns surgeons.  Having qualified from St Thomas’ in London she decided to do what so many of us do and move down under. Since the early days of her career she has recognised that to improve the outcomes of burns victims involves not just scarless skin, but also healing in mind and spirit. Along with Marie Stoner she pioneered the use of ‘spray-on skin’ and is well known for the care she provided to the victims of the Bali bombings back in October 2002.

In this talk she talks about the past, the present and the future of burns care whilst championing the roles of women in medicine and surgery. As a mother of six children she reminds us all that there is nothing that cannot be achieved if you ask for it.

Warwick Teague is a passionate man. His aim in life is simple, to make himself unemployed. As the Director of Trauma at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital he knows all to well the burden of preventable disease that rolls through the door every single day.

So how can you be that person? How can you make a difference, either at work or at home? You can play safe at home and encourage responsible use of play equipment. You can advocate for changes in legislation surrounding the use of ATVs. You can make sure newborns are taken home in appropriate restraints. As Warwick would say, “Be bold“.

This is a talk about two boys – Logan and Lewis. It’s also the story of their parents – Joanne and Scott. But it is also the story of many parents of premature babies who have to endure weeks away from home, often away from their families, their support networks, their friends.

Joanne and Scott turned their experience into something else. They wanted to be able to support other parents that might experience a little of what they went through. Through the work of Helping Little Hands they help provide real food for parents in the NICU. Through local community partners they provide massages to tired shoulders and fuel vouchers for weary parents. If you want to donate to Helping Little Hands then head over to their web-page.

When Ian and Callum Summers spoke about the importance of child centred communication it was all about the simulated patient. This talk from Damian is about child centred communication in the real world.

What do the children see in your place of work? Is all they see shoes and knees? Is all they hear beeps and the clatter of trolleys? Sometimes we have to go beyond the basic history and look to the motivation of the patients or their parents.

Greg Kelly is a paediatric intensive care specialist working in Brisbane. He is also a master of the power nap. In this great talk Greg reminds us that despite us making great leaps in medical knowledge it comes with the twin costs of complacency and complexity. Whether you are considering the work of James Lind or the work of the Streptomycin in Tuberculosis Trials Committee, most medical trials really fail to show any major difference.

So what does make a difference? Perhaps it is developing a culture of reliability. Listen to Greg explain…

Over the last couple of weeks we have been laying out some of the subtleties surrounding non-accidental injury in children. Nikki Abela has told us about some of the evidence behind long bone fractures, Kate Mckinnon has provided us with the updated guidelines around the skeletal survey and Bindu Bali has reminded us of why we make the call. In this final talk from the NAI session Jo Tully, Deputy Director of the Victorian Forensic Paediatric Medical Service talks about how we can play our part and make a difference.

Bindu Bali is an Paediatric Emergency Medicine consultant at Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne and the very first doctor that Andy Tagg met when he started working in Australia. When not dealing with the children of the Western Suburbs she works with the Victorian Forensic Paediatric Medical Service (VFPMS).

We can all feel paralysed when dealing with a potential case of NAI but with a little bit of knowledge it can be a lot easier for us to pick up the phone. In the emergency department or on the ward it is not our job to diagnose NAI but it is our job to be vigilant and to look out for it.  Nikki Abela spoke about how not all long bone fractures are equal and Bindu highlights the importance of describing what you see, rather than what you think you see.

Nikki Abela is an Emergency Medicine registrar with a sub-speciality interest in PEM. If she is not singing karaoke with her friends she is hard at work for RCEMlearning, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s e-learning platform.

In this talk, the first of three on non-accidental injuries, Nikki focuses on long bone injuries, and how they might herald something more serious than a little misadventure at the playground.

Kevin McCaffrey is a paediatric intensivist in Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. In this great talk Kevin challenges our preconceptions, our cognitive dispositions to respond, our biases, if you will, and asks us to look beyond the man in the skirt.

We’ve all been to morbidity and mortality conferences and said to ourselves, “I would never have done that”. That is bias – blindspot bias. So, open your eyes to some of your own biases and become a little more open-minded.