Our Future Research to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Children
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Our future Research to improve the health and wellbeing of children PREVENTION INNOVATION DEDICATION Annual Report 2007 Telethon Institute for Child Health Research Contents Who we are The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research is Western Australia’s only research facility dedicated to child 2007 Highlights .....................................................................................................4 health. Like the childhood illnesses and diseases we investigate, our team is diverse, consisting of some of New Division of Genetics and Health ....................................................7 Australia’s, and the world’s, leading experts in their fields. Chairman’s message ...........................................................................................8 We are housed in a purpose-built research facility on the edge of the Perth CBD and have close to 450 staff and Board of Directors ..............................................................................................9 students as well as around 70 honorary and visiting researchers throughout the year. Director’s report ...............................................................................................10 The Institute is a non-Government, not-for-profit organisation with strong affiliations with the State children’s Research Review 2007 hospital and all the major WA universities. Aboriginal child health ...................................................................14 Asthma, allergies and respiratory disease ...........................16 What we do Cancer .....................................................................................................18 Our focus is on children, young people and their families. Healthy development .....................................................................20 We investigate the most complex, costly and devastating health problems facing our children in the 21st century. Infectious disease ..............................................................................22 We approach these problems with dedication and innovation as we try to achieve our overall goal - prevention. Social and emotional wellbeing ................................................24 We work together. We work with others. We work hard to improve the life chances for all children. The early years ...................................................................................26 You will find information about our broad range of research programs in the following pages. Understanding disability ................................................................28 Senior staff ..........................................................................................................30 Our mission Telethon’s 40 years .........................................................................................33 To improve and to promote the health and wellbeing of all children through the unique application of Collaborations and joint ventures ...........................................................34 multidisciplinary research. Consumer and community participation ............................................37 Corporate and community partnerships ............................................38 Our aims Children’s Future Fund .................................................................................40 • To conduct high quality research. Chief Financial Officer’s report .................................................................43 Commercialisation and biotechnology .................................................44 • To apply research findings to improve the health of children, adolescents and families. Committees of the Board............................................................................46 • To teach the next generation of health researchers. Management/Operating structure ..........................................................47 • To be an advocate for research and for children. Administration and Corporate Services .............................................49 2007 - The year in brief .................................................................................50 Research income ...............................................................................................51 Our supporters .................................................................................................52 Senior staff “Children are one third of our population and all of our future.” Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981 Our future A child’s future is being shaped even before they’re conceived. It’s shaped by their family, their home, their community. It’s shaped by genetics determined at conception and then by what happens in the womb. From birth, the influences are more obvious. Nutrition and nurturing. Emotional attachment and education. Financial security and a safe home. At the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, our focus is on the whole child. It’s an innovative approach to child health research. Since 1990, we’ve built a team of leading scientists from a range of different disciplines to tackle the most challenging and costly diseases and issues affecting young people today. We are unpacking the complex pathways to childhood cancer, asthma, obesity, infectious diseases and disability. We’re asking what leads to abuse and neglect, behavioural problems and the high rates of mental health issues? We’re exploring the complex connections between environmental factors and genetics. We know that many diseases and issues have their origins in early childhood, or even before birth. We know that a society that is good for children is actually good for everyone – more nurturing, more tolerant, with better facilities and services. And we know that children are our future. Future leaders, future workers, future artists, future thinkers, future parents, and future decision makers. Child health research is a long term investment. Our future depends on it. 2007 Highlights Our total research income for the year was $18.4 children at risk of developmental difficulties. We also After many years of advocacy and lobbying by our million. announced results for the Pilbara towns of Karratha, Institute, the Federal and State Food Regulation Exmouth and Hedland. (see page 26) Ministers decided to make it mandatory for food to be In 2007, our researchers published extensively with fortified with folate. In 1989 the Medical Journal of 171 publications including research papers in national We developed a resource pack Australia published a scientific paper by Professors and international journals, books, book chapters, for health professionals to help Carol Bower and Fiona Stanley that showed the reports and special newsletters. them to talk openly to women of child powerful effect of folate in reducing neural tube Our researchers presented their research findings at bearing age about defects by up to 70%. The combined impact of conferences and meetings around the world, including the risks of voluntary fortification and education campaigns only throughout Europe, North America and Asia as well as alcohol reduced the rates of neural tube defects by about 30%. on home soil in major cities and regional centres across consumption in Mandatory fortification will mean better protection for Australia. pregnancy. The women, particularly vulnerable groups including the young, people in remote communities with less access In 2007, we launched the packs, which include a to fresh fruit and vegetables, Indigenous mothers, and Children’s Future Fund, comprehensive booklet, for the 40 per cent of women whose pregnancies were an endowment fund to fact sheet and information unplanned. In 2007, Fiona Stanley and Carol Bower support research at the wallet cards for women, were were recognised with Leadership Awards from the Institute. The fund will allow sent to health professionals Flour Fortification Initiative for their continued lobbying us to grow a substantial throughout WA during 2007. and advocacy for folate for more than a decade. capital base from which a (see page 28) sustainable income can be Results from Perth trials of an Australian-developed generated to underpin growth and respond quickly to pandemic influenza vaccine showed that adults, children opportunities. (see page 40) and the elderly all produced strong immune responses We released results from the Australian Early against the H5N1 bird ‘flu virus. The vaccine was well Development Index (AEDI) which showed a significant tolerated and the data have been submitted for improvement in early child development when registration of the vaccine with the Therapeutic Goods compared with a similar study in 2003. The Index Administration for use in the event of a pandemic. (see shows what proportion of children are developmentally page 22) vulnerable, that is, in the lowest 10 per cent of any An Institute study found that the rate of caesarean domain. In the Perth suburb of Wembley, the sections in Western Australia almost doubled in a 20 percentage of children who were vulnerable in one or year period to 2003. The research project looked at all more domain dropped from 42 per cent in 2003, to 11 births in Western Australia between 1984 and 2003 per cent in 2006. In neighbouring Floreat, the number (more than 430,000 births) and analysed the mode of dropped from 47 per cent in 2003 to 14 per cent in delivery. The study found that the rise could not be 2006. Community demands for better resources for explained by increases in clinical reasons