Improving Childhood Asthma Management (ICAM) Community of Practice - session 5 Winter preparedness and asthma services in Victoria

Community of practice (CoP) sessions aim to improve clinician confidence in managing childhood asthma, and foster collaboration between asthma care services in the inner west of Melbourne, the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Asthma Australia and the National Asthma Council Australia. Discussions and findings can also be applied to the wider childhood asthma community. 

The CoP provides an opportunity for all asthma care providers managing children to come together to improve their clinical knowledge and confidence. The sessions build the confidence of clinicians to access resources and services to better link patients into the system. 

Participants are multidisciplinary clinicians from community, primary and tertiary care services. Members play key roles identifying current barriers, and work together to develop local solutions to improve the care and service delivery to children living with asthma. 

Opportunity will be provided for members to bring forth complex, de-identified case studies to be discussed within the group. This allows members to learn from a multidisciplinary team and better understand the role different care providers have as part of the asthma care team. When available, local data will also be shared to better understand how the system is performing, including sharing of hospital emergency admission rates of children with asthma. Clinical content will be covered by subject matter experts, including specialists from RCH. 

If you would like to submit a de-identified case for discussion, suggest other topics for upcoming sessions, or join the ICAM CoP Basecamp, please email education@nwmphn.org.au 

Facilitators 

Dr Katherine Chen is a paediatrician and the clinical lead of the short stay unit at RCH. Katherine graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2002 and completed her PhD in 2018. In addition to her clinical expertise in acute paediatrics, she is a clinician scientist fellow in the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s health services and economics group. Her research interest is improving the care of children with asthma and wheeze. 

Dr Kirsty Tamis works as a GP in Truganina in Melbourne’s west. She is a member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Royal College of General Practitioners and Royal College of Physicians in the UK. She has completed her Diploma of Child Health and is passionate about supporting parents and children towards better holistic health and living. 

Dr Shivanthan Shanthikumar is a paediatric respiratory specialist and clinician-scientist at RCH. He works in the complex asthma clinic, and was recently involved in helping to put the new asthma clinical practice guidelines together. 

ICAM Community of Practice sessions will be held bimonthly at 6:30pm on Wednesdays until May 2024.

Guest Speakers

Zoë Beddoes is a nurse and midwife with a diverse background including emergency, juvenile justice, community nursing and maternity care. Currently, Zoë divides her time between providing comprehensive maternity care in a public hospital setting and serving as a part-time Health Educator for The Water Well Project. She is dedicated to working closely with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, both locally and internationally, aiming to enhance health literacy and promote equity within migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeker communities.

Dr Joanna Lawrence is the Director of Victorian Virtual Specialist Consults, Director of Paediatrics, Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) and the Deputy Director of the VVED. She works clinically at the Royal Children’s Hospital and the VVED, and until recently was one of the lead clinicians in the Complex Asthma program at RCH. She is passionate about providing children and families better access to care, reducing waste in the healthcare system and leveraging technology to re-design healthcare delivery in a sustainable manner.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Implement best practice management for asthma in children
• Describe resources and local services available for children living with asthma
• Identify collaborative, multidisciplinary opportunities to improve care for children living with asthma
• Interpret local data and identify potential solutions to improve asthma care locally.