Invasive Meningococcal Disease is here in the community.
On completion of this educational activity, attendees will be able to:
- Review the epidemiology of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) in Australia
- Identify the serotypes causing IMD and presentation trends according to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System
- Describe who is eligible for free Meningococcal ACWY and B on the NIP schedule
- Review recent reimbursement changes for Meningococcal B in SA and QLD
- Describe the impact of vaccination practices on IMD rates if other States followed a MenB free vaccination program, additional to the current NIP schedule
Speaker: Prof Jim Buttery
Jim Buttery is the inaugural Professor of Child Health Informatics at the University of Melbourne based at the Melbourne Children’s Campus Centre for Health Analytics. He is the Chief Research Information Officer and an infectious diseases physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is also the Head of Epidemiology and Signal Detection of SAEFVIC, the Victorian Immunisation Safety Service, and Group Head, Health informatics, at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network. Jim leads an epi-informatics team of epidemiologists, data analysts and statisticians whose research revolves around innovative use of real-world data to answer important questions in infectious diseases epidemiology, vaccine safety and effectiveness.
These innovations include Introducing Australia’s first state based public facing vaccine safety report, updated weekly, to inform the public and maintain vaccine confidence (Saefvic.online/vaccinesafety), development of syndromic vaccine safety surveillance methodologies, including de-identified telephone help line and GP data network surveillance which have been incorporated into DHHS Victoria surveillance, and the establishment of the Vaccine Safety Health Link (VSHL). VSHL is a statewide Victorian prospective vaccine safety data linkage project linking Victorian Australian immunisation Register data to hospital admissions, emergency presentations, perinatal, births and deaths and primary care datasets. This is the only vaccine datalink system in Australia incorporating perinatal and GP data.
To understand the full impact of common viruses upon human health, he has established Snotwatch, a novel population wide spatiotemporal platform to link viral exposures to health outcomes, and understand the full health and economic burden of these viruses. Initial studies have shown new associations with febrile seizures, Kawasaki Disease, childhood hepatitis and chilblains. Using pathology, environmental exposures, and hospital, ED and GP datasets, we are generating new insights into common respiratory viruses.
Moderator: Dr Andrew Baird
Andrew is a General Practitioner in St Kilda, Melbourne, and a Medical Advisor with a medical defence organisation. He has a background in rural general practice and medical education.
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