Thank you for being part of our TPA community
| Welcome to our third quarterly newsletter! Our TPA community is unified by a shared determination to improve health outcomes for babies, children and adolescents. Over the months of July to September 2024, clinical pearls, perspectives and plans have continued to Zoom across the ocean in both directions. We are so proud of and grateful to our flourishing community of allied health and nursing professionals. Andrew Heasley’s nursing-led discussion group on how to speak up for safety, and Jessica Newham and Kathryn Clark’s session on physiotherapy for the well-being of children with cancer are just two examples of how valuable these topics can be. Thank you to all who participate. |
We continue to see and deeply respect the dedication and grit of all our colleagues working in resource-limited settings. You make diagnoses and coordinate complex care that would challenge the best resourced health systems: A case of Kaposiform haemangioendothelioma in the Solomon Islands and one of Langherhans cell histiocytosis in Fiji to name a few.
This quarter has also seen us take vital steps in our drive towards instituting a newborn screening program to detect congenital hypothyroidism at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. Heartfelt thanks go to every volunteer who ran the City 2 Surf, and to every colleague both in Australia and in Honiara for their can-do determination and drive to make this happen. In particular, head of paediatrics Dr Titus Nasi, head of obstetrics Dr Leeanne Panisi, Ms Susan Dikahehe midwifery nurse educator, Dr Carol Titiulu, neonatology. Not pictured Dr Zarina Kere, local lead for this research project and of course our leading light paediatric endocrinologist Dr Shubha Srinivasan.
Implementing a new program in an already stretched health system requires cooperation and buy-in from lots of different people who lead very different lives. The project is not going to be possible without the dedication of antenatal nurses educating families about the project in the provinces of the Solomon Islands, and the tireless midwives and junior doctors who will collect the cord blood.
One of the reasons this project is so exciting is because it demonstrates how momentum can accumulate from a series of TPA case discussions. It is also an example of how by continually building our TPA community, one Zoom session at a time, we can gently grow the scope of what we can try and do together
It was an honour to meet with so many nursing staff from Honiara recently. Thank you so very much to all our colleagues who join TPA sessions for your participation. Speaking to strangers on Zoom can be daunting and this is true for everybody, no matter which side of the screen/ocean you are on but all contributions are valued so highly. While the core business of TPA is to provide access to specialised experts, the sessions are really about uniting two different types of expertise. The expertise of local staff about their community, culture and health system is just as important. And don’t forget, our Australian volunteers are often just as nervous about talking on Zoom!
UNSW School of Biomedical Engineering
Speaking of community, last year TPA had the pleasure of introducing Professor Lauren Kark to the Solomon Islands. This proved the start of a blossoming relationship between the UNSW School of Biomedical Engineering and Solomon Islands National University. In response to the needs assessment of last year, this year’s group of UNSW biomedical engineering students were able to bring two prototypes for equipment that will improve the lives of children living with disabilities. As pictured below, there is a chair that enables safe and comfortable upright posturing for children to participate in meal times and schooling, and a book programmable to any language that enables communication for those with speech impairment. The UNSW students ran workshops to teach SINU engineering students how to make the prototypes and are exploring whether these items can even be made locally. The UNSW students were also able to present their prototypes to the paediatric team in Honiara, whose response was, “we’ll take twenty!”
Australian volunteers continue to benefit from exposure to pathology rarely seen in Australia and to the challenges of problem-solving and adapting their clinical reasoning to resource limited settings. Do you know a subspecialist who would like to join our community?
We wish Dr Elodie Moreau the very best as she takes a hiatus from her role running TPA’s South Pacific Journal Club. We welcome her replacement facilitators and look forward to welcoming her back soon!
South Pacific journal club. Thank you to Dr Annette Garae from Vanuatu for her excellent analysis of a study that stopped early when it became evident that furosemide infusion does not prevent acute kidney injury in critically unwell patients. This was an interesting question given the lateness of presentation of many patients with septic shock for our community, and the variable access to inotropes.
Dr Robert Simmons did an excellent job of summarising and assessing his choice of Cochrane review of prophylactic barbiturate use in perinatal asphyxia. It was a fascinating topic and the first time we have discussed a Cochrane review in our journal club.
Please note all photographs are generated by artificial intelligence software (except those used of staff and colleagues with consent!)
