Sabbatical Leave begins

I walked out of Monash Children's yesterday having handed over the reigns to my colleagues to watch over my projects until I return from sabbatical. I'm excited and grateful to have this opportunity to explore new ideas and create new contacts in the 3 main areas of my sabbatical.

They are:

1. Quality and Safety in Healthcare - planning to attend IHI Congress in Glasgow and do one of their immersive courses in USA later this year. Also hope to visit Cincinatti Children's and various other children's hospitals throughout Australia and NZ to see how they are tackling some of our challenges.

2. Health and Education - This has become a big area of interest for me in the last few years; spurred on by my role in developing the Monash Children's Hospital School. I hope to visit the children's hospitals with schools around Aust and NZ and compare services, as well as repeat a study we did at Monash few years ago looking at how much school kids with medical issues miss.

3. Social Determinants of Health is an enormous area. Looking at some of the ideas I had during the WCLP program, I hope to see how Glasgow has addressed some of the issues in disadavtaged communities to improve the health and life trajectory of young people and families.

So, I'm out at the airport, ready to commence a long journey to Scotland, but an even bigger one in my mind over the next 6-8 months. I'll try to update the blog from time to time with travel pics and reflections along the way.