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Otto Wolff Lecture and Catherine Peckham Symposium
Remote Media URL
This year’s Otto Wolff Lecture and Catherine Peckham Symposium will focus on paediatric palliative care from the perspective of parents, clinicians, and researchers. Together they build the team around the ill child with the aim of ensuring that the needs of children and young people and their families are met. There will be presentations by experts on symptom management, ethical considerations, and family experiences. Emphasis will be put on care and research.
Dr Lola Solebo - TEDxLSTM Lola Solebo is a scientist and paediatric ophthalmic surgeon. Her interest is in how we predict, and what decides outcomes for children with blinding eye diseases, and how we use this information to best help affected children. Her PhD involved a longitudinal cohort study (watching for outcomes over a period of time for a defined group) on children affected by one of the most important causes of childhood blindness: cataract. Study findings have changed clinical practice and impacted on national policy. She is about to start another study to examine how best we measure disease, and how best we use this information, for another important, rare, blinding childhood eye disease: uveitis. The work is supported by a prestigious National Institute of Health Research Clinician Scientist award, and a national clinical collaborative group she has co-founded, the Paediatric Ocular Inflammation Group. It's also supported by the affected children and their families, who have helped her every step of the way. Lola is also (alongside her partner, Mark) a parent to two girls, aged 4 and 5, who when asked what mummy does says 'She fixes children's eyes'.
Dr Celine Lewis - Great Ormond Street Hospital and Charity Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health have created this animation for young people coming to the hospital to have their genome sequenced. The animation is linked to the 100,000 Genomes Project. The aim of the project is to identify the underlying genetic cause for some rare diseases as well as create a new genomic medicine service for the NHS. “We hope that the animation will make it easier for patients and families to understand this new technology and help them make decisions about whether to use it,” said Celine Lewis, Senior Research Social Scientist. To date, the animations have received over 30,000 views on You Tube and won Best Animation in the West of England Royal Television Society Awards 2018.
Vaccination is crucial, but measures to improve vaccine access are far more important than making vaccination mandatory, as the social norm in the UK already leads to very high uptake of vaccines, argues Professor Helen Bedford – who ends her ‘slot’ by pointing out that we already know what works to improve access to vaccines. Helen joined Michael Buerk on his regular Radio 4 show for a lively debate.
Nine out of ten people get their children vaccinated. But even so, many people still have questions. Things like: Should I bother with the flu jab? Is it better to get single vaccines? Does immunity wear off? What about side effects? Is the aluminium in vaccines dangerous? Marnie Chesterton asks Prof Helen Bedford, Prof Adam Finn and Dr Tonia Thomas for answers.
One thing we know for sure is that vaccinating or NOT vaccinating both have some element of risk. So what should people do in the face of such uncertainty? Risk expert Prof David Spiegelhalter and experimental psychologist Anne-Marie Nussberger discuss how uncertainty affects the way we behave and the decisions we make.
Covid-19 has changed how doctors and nurses communicate with their patients, Graham Easton is Professor of Communication Skills at Barts and QMUL , and he tells James about how doctors and nurses can ensure they communicate effectively with their patients. Giving bad news is never easy but how do you explain to a relative about end of life decisions via an iPad?
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul reviews the latest evidence around BAME and Covid-19 and with Jo Hudson-Lett from Revoluton Arts looks at projects for young people adversely effected by Covid-19. Plus Margaret McCartney on Covid passports - will they ever happen?
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul - BBC World Service Health Check
A significant proportion of sufferers of Long Covid are reporting that their symptoms lessen or disappear completely after receiving a coronavirus vaccination. At the moment, the evidence is just anecdotal but doctors and researchers are intrigued. Claudia talks to New York infectious disease doctor Daniel Griffin who estimates that more than a third of his patients are getting some relief following vaccination and Prof Janet Lord, professor of immunology at Birmingham University, runs through the possible explanations.
As Claudia’s studio guest, Monica Lakhanpaul also offers thoughts about migraine as someone who suffers from them herself and who treats young people for migraine. She also talks about research she’s been doing in Rajasthan about the causes of stunted growth in young children – she’s discovered that the causes are much more complicated than inadequate nutrition.
