Penta was highly represented at the Mini-Symposium hosted by Green Templeton College – University of Oxford on the 7th of April 2022 entitled “Serving the children of the world: examining the current research needs in Paediatrics”.
The key idea of the symposium was exploring the needs of child health globally and acknowledging the importance of facilitating research collaboration in global health. The topics of the symposium spanned from Perinatal Medicine to Adolescent Health. World class speakers from all over the world as well as students from Oxford, contributed towards making this symposium a success. Partnering organisations, were The Global Heath Network, the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR) and the Academic Paediatrics Society (APA, UK). With their support, we were able to compile an outstanding programme.
The valuable experience of the Penta consortium on patient involvement was presented by Mercy Shibemba, an award-winning activist. Using her story of growing up with HIV to educate, challenge and inspire she presented how research should ensure that the voices of young people are central in decisions and processes that impact their lives. The title of her presentation was: “Challenge or opportunity? Utilising the voices of children to shape paediatric research”.
Prof Carlo Giaquinto presented the experience of Penta in dealing with the dynamic evolution of paediatric infectious diseases research, highlighting the essential role of global collaborations.
Speakers and participants engaged in a valuable debate around the challenges and needs of child health globally acknowledging the importance of synergies and ac collaborations in global health in paediatrics. Overall, the mini symposium was extremely successful from various perspectives. The high-level interventions showed how crucial is to have an interdisciplinary approach to global child health. The day was an opportunity to create new collaborations that will for sure generate new opportunities of research for young researchers.
Thank you to Davide Bilardi, Senior Project manager at Penta and all those involved in organising this symposium for an insightful afternoon.