Paediatric Innovation Funding - Successful projects 2018-2019 and 2019-2020

Paediatric Innovation Funding supports innovation projects for children’s healthcare that will translate into better patient outcomes, improve the delivery of health services, and/or improve patient, family or staff health and wellbeing. NSW Health invites local health districts and Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) to apply for the funding.

The purpose of Paediatric Innovation Funding is to

• encourage the health system to address identified priorities for children’s healthcare in NSW
• provide funding to innovative projects in paediatrics, including:
• seed funding for new ideas
• to address identified gaps
• for development of resources
• for implementation or scaling up of small projects that have been evaluated
• support projects that have potential to be translated into policy and practice, and/or scaled up across NSW
• encourage collaboration and practice change that improves health outcomes, including engagement and partnership with policy makers, networks, health system administrators and practitioners to ensure the proposed project is effective.

Funding of up to $200,000 has been allocated to the successful applicants for projects of a maximum duration of 18 months and undertaken during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years.

On this page

1. Central Coast Local Health District
2. Hunter New England Local Health District
3. Murrumbidgee Local Health District
4. Northern NSW Local Health District
5. South Eastern Sydney Local Health District
6. Southern NSW Local Health District
7. Sydney Local Health District
8. Sydney Children's Hospitals Network (SCHN)
9. Western Sydney Local Health District
10. Western NSW Local Health District

Central Coast Local Health District

Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scoring to better support families at high risk of trauma-induced harm

• Aims to incorporate ACE scoring at Local Health District-level to identify families with children at risk of trauma-induced harm.
• Will better target family supports and early intervention strategies to the most vulnerable children.
• The project aims to intervene earlier and more effectively to break the inter-generational cycle of trauma.

Project Lead: Dr Damon Shorter, Senior Staff Paediatrician: damon.shorter@health.nsw.gov.au

Hunter New England Local Health District

Supporting managers and clinicians to improve clinical practice against the National Safety & Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS)

• To reflect the NSQHS standards (2nd edition), acute paediatric units will be provided with standardised clinical audit tools with supported training and implementation resources.
• Models for Improvement and Safety Steps will be used to build capability and capacity with clinicians and managers on the wards.
• Implementation science will be used in managing change initiatives.

Project Lead: Matthew Frith, Manager & Co-Director Community, Partnerships & Integrated Services: matthew.frith@health.nsw.gov.au

Murrumbidgee Local Health District

Prevention of childhood obesity — A community program

• Focuses on early recognition of risk factors with early intervention as a strategy for prevention of childhood obesity and associated poor health outcomes.
• The project will particularly target at risk children and families including culturally sensitive intervention for indigenous communities.
• The project team will work with paediatricians, child and family health nurses, allied health staff, education and the primary health network to establish a system of risk recognition and intervention.
• Clinical leadership will be provided by a multidisciplinary prevention program within the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLocal Health District).

Developing sustainable neonatal intensive care services in a regional location

• A stepwise expansion of a service which currently caters for babies born after 32 weeks, to include deliveries at 30 weeks and then 28 weeks over a 12 month period.
• The target group will be mothers between 28 and 32 weeks pregnant with a risk of preterm delivery.
• The main site will be Wagga Wagga Base Hospital (WWBH) but will involve all sites delivering maternal and infant care in the Murrumbidgee. These include hospitals in Tumut, Young, Temora, Cootamundra, Narrandera, Leeton, Griffith, and possibly Deniliquin and Albury.

Project Lead: Associate Professor John Preddy, District Director of Paediatrics: john.preddy@health.nsw.gov.au

Northern NSW Local Health District

Pregnancy family conferencing

• The project will provide early engagement and interagency care planning for pregnant women and families where there are serious child protection concerns and a risk that the newborn child will enter out-of-home care at birth.
• A family group conferencing approach will consist of a series of three meetings based on the Three Houses tool and the Signs of Safety Framework.
• The family will be guided and supported through this Agency for Clinical Innovation-endorsed initiative by a NSW Health social worker.

Project Lead: Nicole Ashby, Acting Child Protection Manager: nicole.ashby@health.nsw.gov.au

South Eastern Sydney Local Health District

The Paediatric Term — video orientation + essential online preparation for clinical care

• A novel, learner-oriented product that aims to encourage critical thinking by combining triage, clinical judgment, communication and risk management in paediatric clinical care.
• Aims to place the clinician being oriented into everyday situational dilemmas they will encounter.
• Permitting incremental module completion for Junior Medical Officers (JMOs), it can be adapted to local settings.

Project Lead: Dr Bob Fonseca, Head of Paediatricse: bob.fonseca@health.nsw.gov.au

Southern NSW Local Health District

Paediatric Integrated Care Coordination

• A shared care model between Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Southern NSW Local Health District and the Primary Health Network to improve the management of children with medical complexity (CMC).
• The project aims to enhance recognition of the primary care team local, increase engagement among general practitioners and clinicians to develop clear processes for identification of paediatric chronic illness and CMC.
• It will also support increased use of telemedicine and outreach modalities for coordination of health and social services for children with chronic or complex conditions who reside in rural and remote areas.

Project Lead: Danielle Bos, Paediatric Clinical Nurse Consultant: danielle.bos@health.nsw.gov.au

Sydney Local Health District

When doing a filling isn't enough: implementation of a novel, evidence-based chronic -disease management program to empower at-risk kids to reduce dental treatment, pain and general anaesthetic needs

• Aims to implement the Steps To A Renewed Smile program (STARS) within Sydney Dental Hospital and three LHD dental clinics.
• To determine if the STARS program in tertiary, non-tertiary and rural dental clinics will reduce the incidence of dental caries, pain presentations, repeat general anaesthetics, cost and need for treatment for children under 6 years of age.
• The program will assist in providing evidence-based recommendations on potential state-wide implementation.

Project Lead: Dr Harleen Kumar, Head of Department, Paediatric Dentistry: harleen.kumar@health.nsw.gov.au

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network (SCHN)

a-NSW — Transforming Child Health Systems

• Aims to use the First 2000 Days program to create a health intelligence system responsive to the changing needs of the population that will address key child health priorities.
• This three-phase pilot will co-create the Alpha NSW platform with key stakeholders and show how high-quality population-level data and analytic capacity can inform intervention delivery and integrated models of care

Project Lead: Professor Raghu Lingam, Consultant Community Paediatrician: raghu.lingam@health.nsw.gov.au or r.lingam@unsw.edu.au

Western Sydney Local Health District

Growing little language learners: an integrated and community health (ICH) and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) partnership to improve health and developmental outcomes for children in Western Sydney

• An innovative and collaborative early identification and intervention project to improve health and developmental outcomes for children with speech, communication and language delays in Western Sydney.
• Western Sydney LHD Child and Family Speech Pathology Services will partner with Cumberland Council and the University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Speech Pathology to deliver a professional development program of prevention and integrated care to early childhood education centres in Cumberland Council area

Project Lead: Alison Britton, Clinical Senior, Speech Pathology: alison.britton@health.nsw.gov.au

Western NSW Local Health District

The feasibility and scalability of a virtual paediatric feeding service in rural NSW

• Aims to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of using telehealth to conduct paediatric feeding assessment and treatment and to improve equity of access to specialist services in a rural area.
• The project will develop a virtual service using clinicians at the paediatric feeding clinic at Orange Health Service.
• The virtual clinic will involve a joint model of care with an allied health or child/family health clinician from the client’s local service present during consultations

Project Lead: Juliet Hawthorn, Senior Paediatric Dietitian; juliet.hawthorn@health.nsw.gov.au