A message from your President

Expressions of Interest (EOIs)

Please keep an eye on the EOIs page on the College website for vacant positions on PCHD Committees.

• Represent on the PCHD Council
• Represent on the CCCH Committee
• Represent on the PCHD Policy & Advocacy Committee
• Represent on the AYAM Committee
• Represent on the PCHD Research Committee

All Expressions of Interest

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RACP Congress 2024 kicks off this Thursday, 16 and Friday, 17 May

There’s still time to register if you haven’t already. This year’s program is designed to offer a broad range of content no matter your specialty or career stage.

 You will find thought-provoking discussions on topics that will impact the future of our profession, such as:

• The ways in which the disability and health sector can improve healthcare for people with disability
• The development of the Australian Centre for Disease Control
• How Artificial Intelligence is shaping the healthcare landscape
• How current practices will shape the future of physician training, plus more!

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from local and international subject matter experts, earn your CPD hours and network with your colleagues. 

This will be an insightful two days, we hope to see you there.

Register now

                                                           

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Chapter of Community Child Health update: Membership survey 2024

Earlier this year we sent a short survey to our 600+ current Chapter of Community Child Health (CCCH) members; 57 of those members (9 per cent of the total membership) responded. Some interesting points of that feedback follow (note that percentages quoted relate to survey respondents, not overall membership):

• Majority are working in developmental and behavioural paediatrics (89 per cent), with a majority (82 per cent) being members of the Australasian Society for Developmental Paediatrics (ASDP).
• Majority (84 per cent) are working in public; less than one quarter in private.
• Nearly 80 per cent believe the Chapter of Community Child Health and Committee has a role in RACP, with a majority (74 per cent) feeling we should continue to exist.

  The survey asked members what they think the CCCH should be focusing on, and in what priority:

  1. Support trainees
  2. Support professional development of Fellows
  3. Policy and advocacy
  4. Develop, coordinate, and implement projects related to CCH
  5. Workforce matters
  6. Research

  We are aware that the survey results represent just under 10 per cent of the Chapter membership and may not reflect everyone’s views. The committee has met to review the survey and will continue to build on this as we develop a strategic plan for the CCCH. Our focus will be on:

  1. Collaboration and support to the Advance Trainee Committee CCH
  2. Education calendar and events to support the professional development of members of the Chapter.
  3. Several policy and advocacy matters that need to be driven by the Chapter which could be in collaboration with affiliated societies. We will need to work with the College Policy & Advocacy Council around certain topics whilst they move to addressing wellbeing and workforce.

More updates will follow throughout the year as work develops. Please check in on the CCH ROC for any announcements and to engage with your CCH colleagues on these matters as they unfold.

Further to updates, I’d like to remind everyone of the following events which may be of interest to CCCH members:

• Australasian Society for Developmental Paediatrics (ASDP, formerly NBPSA), 22 to 24 August 2024, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Gold Coast, Queensland: ASDP24 (eventsair.com)
• Child Protection Paediatric Society of Australasia (CPPSA), 28 to 29 November 2024, Sydney. More details to follow; see CPPSA website. 

Dr Paul Hotton
Chair, Chapter of Community Child Health

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Seeking members for Advisory Committees 

Would you like to contribute to the regulation of therapeutic goods in Australia? 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is seeking applications from experts in medicine, science and consumer perspectives and issues, to fill upcoming vacancies across seven statutory advisory committees.

Successful applicants will contribute significantly towards the TGA’s regulatory functions by providing independent expert advice on matters across a broad spectrum of issues relating to medicines, medical devices, vaccines, and other products and substances.

If you are interested in applying to be a committee member, come and hear first-hand from past and current members who can answer questions about the experience and expectations of this exciting role.  For more information, and to register for the webinar session, click here.  Please note the webinar will be recorded and published on the TGA website shortly thereafter.

Further information about the roles of the committees is available at https://www.tga.gov.au/tga-statutory-advisory-committees.

To apply, and find out more about the appointment process, go to the Department of Health and Aged Care website.  The deadline for applications is 11.30pm on Sunday 26 May 2024.

Enquiries can be made by email to committee.vacancies@health.gov.au

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Medicines Advice Initiative Australia (MAIA) 

The Council of Therapeutic Advisory Groups (CATAG) has published a Medicines Advice Initiative Australia (MAIA): Cumulative Medicines toolkit.

The toolkit consists of a practice tool and a teaching tool:

• The practice tool has been developed to share resources with Medicines and Therapeutics Advisory Committees and hospitals to assist to identify people at “hidden risk” of cumulative medicines toxicity. This will support implementation of local medicines stewardship programs and promote safe and appropriate deprescribing.

• The teaching tool has been developed to be used by clinical educators in teaching sessions for medical officers, nurses, pharmacists, and students. It provides a clinical example of assessing potential cumulative medicines risk in the hospital. It can be used by educators to demonstrate the use of different tools to facilitate risk assessment and encourage deprescribing in hospitals.

MAIA is a consortium dedicated to improving the use of medicines and related health services in Australia.

For more information, visit the CATAG website. 

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[Journal Club] Baricitinib immune therapy for new onset type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes has a very high treatment burden in terms of direct costs, inconvenience and lost productivity for patients and their carers. Further, all the glucose checking, hormone replacement and consults don’t abolish the vascular complications associated with poor glycaemic control. Only in the last few years has it been possible to pharmacologically alter the course of type 1 diabetes and other auto-immune diseases without generating intolerable side effects.

Teplizumab is an antibody to CD3 which was presented to the world in 2019 as delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes in high-risk individuals thanks to its protective effect on pancreatic β-cells. It has not yet been registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration but another immunomodulatory drug called baricitinib has. Baricitinib is an inhibitor of Janus Kinases indicated for the for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia areata, atopic dermatitis and even COVID-19.

In December of last year, the results of a Phase 2 trial in patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. After almost a year of taking the oral therapy, patients were found to have better glycaemic control and evoked C-peptide levels than those taking placebo, indicating a preserved ability to secrete insulin. In today’s episode, Pomegranate’s in-house endocrinologist interviews two of the study authors.  

Key Reference

Baricitinib and β-Cell Function in Patients with New-Onset Type 1 Diabetes [NEJM. 2023. 7;389(23)]

Guests
Prof Jenny Couper FRACP FAHMS (Women's and Children's Hospital, University of Adelaide)
Dr Michelle So FRACP (Royal Melbourne Hospital, Northern Hospital)

Guest Host
Dr Rahul Barmanray FRACP (Royal Melbourne Hospital)

Please visit the Pomegranate Health web page for a transcript and supporting references. Login to MyCPD to record listening and reading as a prefilled learning activity. Subscribe to new episode email alerts or search for ‘Pomegranate Health’ in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox or any podcasting app.

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Update your details with the College

Did you know that you can now update your address details online? Simply Login to MyRACP and go to “Edit my details”.

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Hear the news first on the ROC

             

 

Did you know that as part of your membership, you now have access to the ROC (RACP Online Community)? The ROC is a secure online platform where you can post questions, share information, and start discussions which other members can immediately see and respond to. If you haven’t used this type of platform before, think of it as a virtual town hall for the entire College and a series of different online common rooms for different Divisions, Faculties and Chapters. It’s prompt and more accessible than email and is a great way to expand your network across the College.

Download the app from the App Store or Google Play, or log in via MyRACP.

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RACP Benefits - your new lifestyle benefits program has arrived

Save on all your favourite lifestyle and service brands from leading retailers across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand – with RACP Benefits. Our new lifestyle benefits portal offers you exclusive discounts and genuine savings on items in a range of popular categories. To celebrate the launch of RACP Benefits, we have some great offers for you to explore.

So log in today and take advantage of your RACP Benefits.

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Pomegranate Health podcast: Your contributions welcome

The RACP podcast, Pomegranate Health, has published over 100 episodes since starting out eight years ago.

To provide more frequent and focused content we’re seeking contributions from our speciality societies, committees and affiliated professional organisations.

To hear what this would sound like, listen to the episodes tagged [IMJ On-Air]

These episodes feature authors published in the Internal Medicine Journal being interviewed by the relevant section editor.

They have covered themes as varied as asthma management, hospital-acquired complications, causes of readmission and the JEV outbreak.

You already spend considerable time preparing lectures and webinars for your colleagues.
Audio podcasts provide an easy way to reach thousands more around the world.
Each episode gets downloaded around 6500 times over the first 12 months from publication, with 21 per cent of listeners located outside of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

All you need to do is to organise one or more presenters and an interviewer familiar with the material. The podcast producer will coordinate an online recording lasting about one hour and then edit it down before publication. The intention would be to ‘brand’ regular episodes from your specialty society or organisation in the same way that we’ve done with [IMJ On-Air].

Please send any questions or ideas to podcast@racp.edu.au 

More news and events

Career opportunities   

View all career opportunities on the RACP website.

Queensland: 

Registrar Paediatrics Advanced Trainee: WA Country Health Services. Closing date: 20 May 2024

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Pot-pourri submissions welcome

To submit an article for publishing in Pot-pourri, please email paed@racp.edu.au. The article should be no more than 350 words. If you would like to submit an image with your article, it would be assumed that you have received appropriate permission to use the photo and it needs to be of high resolution, above 300 dpi. Please note that articles may need to be edited by the RACP Communications Team.

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