Chronic and Severe Disease Working Groups

The Research Focus Area Working Groups are the powerhouses of our RFAs, where collaborations emerge and enhanced and innovative new research will be generated. They are not prescriptive but are naturally informed by the RFA activities, and they are fluid and not time specific, with continuation dependent on interest, motivation and success.

Working groups may dissolve and it is anticipated that new working groups will form and be responsive to a changing research environment. Working groups are sponsored by one primary Research Focus Area.

Our Chronic and Severe Diseases Working Groups are:

Impact of Chronic Diseases on Mental Health and Education. This working group brings together clinicians, researchers, educators and consumers to focus on the health, emotional and educational outcomes of children and young people with chronic illness. The group will concentrate on a number of specific chronic conditions - type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis and hearing impairment - and projects have been developed to study the school experience of children and young people with these conditions, and their educational and health outcomes.

Contact: kevin.runions@telethonkids.org.au

Telethon Kids Cancer Centre. The Telethon Kids Cancer Centre focuses on research to improve the survival and quality of life for kids with cancer. This working group will look at research to test drugs to improve patient outcomes, building our understanding of the biology of individual cancers to identify weaknesses to target, determining why apparently similar cancer cells from individual patients respond differently to treatment, harnessing the power of the body's own immune system to fight cancer cells and developing new treatments with industry partners to feed our drug development pipeline.

Contact: terrance.johns@telethonkids.org.au

Type 2 Diabetes in Western Australian Children and Adolescents. This working group will bring focus to this significant issues affecting the health and wellbeing of children with Type 2 Diabetes. It will also provide a platform for instigating a collaborative approach for identifying the priority areas for research to address this important condition which disproportionately affects Indigenous children, and those in disadvantaged sectors of our community.

Contact: aveni.haynes@telethonkids.org.au