Club Melbourne Ambassadors: Professor Jill Sewell
November 2012
As the biggest upcoming business event to take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in 2013, the International Congress of Paediatrics (ICP) is expected to draw 4000 physicians, researches, nurses and health care workers, injecting an economic impact into Victoria of approximately $30 million.
As the biggest upcoming business event to take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in 2013, the International Congress of Paediatrics (ICP) is expected to draw 4000 physicians, researches, nurses and health care workers, injecting an economic impact into Victoria of approximately $30 million. Congress organising committee member, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, consultant paediatrician Jill Sewell reveals some key issues that will be under discussion at the 2013 ICP conference.
“The overall theme of the event is ‘Bridging the Gaps in Child and Adolescent Health’,” Professor Sewell explains. “There will be significant focus on adolescent medicine and how people make that bridge from being an adolescent with a chronic disease to going on to manage that as an adult once they’ve moved off into the adult system.”
Occurring once every three years, Sewell says the 2013 ICP gathering in Melbourne will begin with the usual topic of discussion – the state of the world’s children according to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – and will be followed by issues which have arisen in paediatrics more recently.
“There was a UN declaration signed in 2005 with goals set up to eradicate things like extreme poverty, hunger and child mortality, and to better things like education and maternal health – so, basically, the goals were developed to benefit children. Each year the UN puts out a report on how the goals and the children are going, and while there has been a significant improvement in child mortality under the age of five, the poorest parts of the world aren’t really progressing.”
The effects of the environment and climate change will be discussed as well, according to Sewell, who claims science and medicine is already considering the consequences and looking at possible solutions.
“We’ll certainly be talking about the environmental impact on child health. Infectious diseases will change as oceans heat up and it begins to rain more in some places and less in others, for example. This will have an impact in the sense that various types of insects that carry viruses will change their distribution around the world, and a lot of work is already being done to try to anticipate those sorts of things. Countries need to have a plan for the future ahead in time to stop the consequences when these things do happen.”
A past President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (only the second woman and second paediatrician to hold this office in 70 years), as well as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to child health, Sewell claims her career path was almost accidental.
“At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my career, so I figured a year at the Royal Children’s Hospital wouldn’t hurt – and here I still am. I enjoy children and I like watching their developmental changes over time. Most of all, I am always amazed at how resilient children are in the face of difficulty, such as diseases. It’s fascinating how children can just blossom and shine through with their personality and intelligence and the capacity to interact with other people, no matter what the circumstances are. It’s incredible to see that giant twinkle in their eye, even when the world around them is complex and chaotic – and yet, they can still hold it all together. I enjoy discovering what it is about these kids that makes them so resilient in the face of adversity. We can learn so much from that.”
The International Congress of Paediatrics takes place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 24-29 August, 2013.
mcec.com.au