Affiliations and Support
Clinical
The Children's Epilepsy Program provides clinical services across departments and divisions at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Services are also provided at The Royal Women's Hospital, the Sunshine Hospital, the Monash Medical Centre, and the private facilities of the various clinicians in Melbourne and Regional Victoria.
Important clinical interaction exists between our program and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Austin Health.
Academic
The Children’s Epilepsy Program is affiliated with the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics. Several staff members have appointments within the Departments of Paediatrics, Psychology and Medicine at either the University of Melbourne or Monash University.
Research
Research within the Children’s Epilepsy Program is currently being conducted or has previously been done with funding from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria, and the Apex Foundation for Research into Intellectual Disability.
Important research collaborations exist with the Brain Imaging Research Institute and the Epilepsy Research Institute at the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre.
Selected clinical drug trials of new antiepileptic medications are conducted with pharmaceutical industry sponsorship.
Financial Support
A Centre of Excellence Grant from the Women’s and Children’s Health Care Network was awarded to the RCH Department of Neurology in 1998-99 to assist establishment of the Children’s Epilepsy Program.
The Children’s Epilepsy Program receives no directed funding. Network funding of individual Departments provides the financial support for the various services provided under the umbrella of the Children’s Epilepsy Program.
The Children’s Epilepsy Program has been generously supported in the purchase of necessary equipment by the:
- the Brainwave Foundation
- the Royal Children’s Hospital Auxiliaries and Good Friday Appeal
- Tattersalls
- AMP Foundation
The Epilepsy Nurse Specialist Clinical Coordinator position at the Children’s Epilepsy Program is generously funded by joint contributions from pharmaceutical companies, namely:
- Glaxo Smith Kline
- Pfizer
- Reckitt & Colman
- Janssen-Cilag
- Novartis
The Clinical Fellowship in Paediatric Epilepsy/EEG is jointly sponsored by:
Commercial collaborations
The neurologists and EEG technologists in the Department of Neurology and the Children’s Epilepsy Program have worked with engineers in the RCH Department of Biomedical Engineering, and most recently with Compumedics Australia Pty Ltd, to develop digital EEG recording equipment and accessories for monitoring children with epilepsy and related seizure disorders. Products to arise from this clinical and engineering collaboration include:
- Datavideoļ¾® 21-channel video-EEG monitoring system
- Compumedics digital video-EEG monitoring system (E series)
- PS Neuro 21-channel ambulatory EEG recording system
- Compumedics Siesta EEG Recording system