Serving the children of the world
Green Templeton hosted a mini-symposium on Global Child Health on Thursday 7 April. The programme discussed ‘Serving the children of the world: examining the current research needs in Paediatrics’ and was developed in partnership with The Global Health Network, the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR), the Academic Paediatrics Society and The Oxford Global Health and Care Systems Society (OGHCS).
The Mini-Symposium originated from the input of Davide Bilardi (DPhil Clinical Medicine, 2018) and Research Fellow Charles Roehr, Professor in Paediatrics, with support from Senior Research Fellow Trudie Lang, Professor of Global Health and Director of The Global Health Network at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of Oxford.
The symposium explored the needs of children in a global health context and acknowledged the importance of facilitating research collaborations. Furthermore, it highlighted original research in the field of paediatrics by hosting a Poster Competition with the help of OGHCS, the results of which were presented during the day.
The panel’s winner of the poster competition was Girdlers’ New Zealand Health Research Council Fellow Cervantée Wild et al. with a poster on ‘Five-year follow-up of a family-based multidisciplinary program for children with weight issues: a post-randomized clinical trial analysis’. The popular vote winner was Lisha Jeena (DPhil Clinical Medicine, 2020) et al. with a poster on ‘The effect of HIV-associated chronic inflammation on musculoskeletal health among peripubertal children in Zimbabwe’.
The two winners will be given the chance to present their work at the European Academy of Paediatric Societies (EAPS) 2022 international conference and will be financially supported by ESPR.
The college welcomed world-class speakers and students interested in topics spanning the areas of perinatal medicine and adolescent health, with more than 80 participants attending the event in person and 20 attending remotely.
The symposium was successful from a variety of perspectives. The high-level presentations and debates throughout the day showed how an interdisciplinary approach is crucial to answering challenges in global child health. Importantly, the event succeeded in creating an opportunity to develop new collaborations that can generate new opportunities for emerging researchers and more senior academics alike. Follow up work to disseminate the ideas generated during the discussions is underway, and this is an area in which the Green Templeton community will remain actively engaged.
Organisational and administrative support was provided by OGHCS committee members OGHCS President Francis Ayomoh (DPhil Primary Health Care, 2021) and OGHCS Editorial and Strategic Engagement Coordinator Cristina Scutariu (MSc Neuroscience, 2021), Academic Projects Manager Ruth Loseby as well as several OGHCS volunteers during the mini-symposium itself.