Monash Children’s Hospital has three paediatric medical clinics addressing the assessment and care needs of Victorian children with permanent hearing impairment from birth to 18 years of age.
Monash Children’s Hospital has three paediatric medical clinics addressing the assessment and care needs of Victorian children with permanent hearing impairment from birth to 18 years of age.
Head of Unit is Dr Kerryn Saunders, a paediatrician specialising in hearing impairment
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic:
This clinic runs Thursday mornings and is located at Monash Children’s Hospital, Clayton. It was the first clinic of its type in Victoria.
Children and families see a paediatrician specialising in hearing impairment. Children of any age and with any type of permanent hearing loss can be referred. Consultation will include seeking to identify a cause for the hearing impairment, assessing the developmental progress of the child and discussing management options. This may include referral to other audiological and medical services.
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic – Infants:
This clinic runs on a Tuesday afternoon and has been specifically established to provide prompt service for newborn infants and those in the first year of life who have been found to have hearing impairment.
Most will have been identified through the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program.
The outcomes for children with hearing impairment are well recognised to be greater with early input of services.
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic – Genetic:
This clinic runs monthly and is a collaboration between the Monash Children’s Hospital and Monash Genetics Department. The clinic provides the expertise of a paediatrician and clinical geneticist. It is the only such clinic in Victoria.
Hearing impairment in children is most often an inherited condition, even when there is no known history of other family members being affected. Sometimes the cause is not genetic and it is important to rule this out as well.
Finding the specific cause of the hearing impairment potentially offers parents and other family members more knowledge about the chance of having further children with hearing impairment.
Identification of a specific gene causing hearing loss may also assist in ensuring there are no other medical or developmental needs that to be addressed.
Other Monash Children’s Hospital departments:
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic services work closely with other clinicians within the hospital to ensure all the medical needs of the children are met. This may include the involvement of:
Research:
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic services are involved in many past and current areas of research, including collaboration within Australia and overseas. This includes the discovery of new genes for hearing impairment.
An exciting development in 2016 has been the generous award of the Peter Howson Research Fellowship to our clinic paediatrician by the Deafness Foundation of Victoria.
Teaching:
Paediatric Hearing Loss Investigation Clinic provides teaching to medical students, trainee paediatricians, audiologists and ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) surgeons. The clinic also provides information to the community through talks given by staff.
Referrals are considered for patients who have fully-diagnosed, permanent childhood hearing loss. Please include copies of all audiological tests.
If a patient requires a hearing test, please refer to Monash Children’s Hospital Audiology.
To refer a patient please contact us via the following:
Email: scmonashchildrens@monashhealth.org
Mail:
Dr Kerryn Saunders
Level 4, Monash Medical Centre
246 Clayton Road
Clayton VIC 3168
Referrals will be triaged and an appointment in the most appropriate clinic made forwarded to the family.
Referrals may be from a wide range of professionals including audiologists, ENT specialists, family doctors and Early Intervention Centres.
A referral must be accompanied by a GP referral for the purposes of Medicare. This is even if you have been referred by an audiologist.
Please review our referral guidelines here prior to referring.
Audiograms from the parents and siblings of the child are also required. If audiograms from other family members are available these are very helpful.
Head of Unit: Dr Kerryn Saunders