Kate has a broad interest in general paediatric neurological conditions, including epilepsy, headache, and neuromuscular weakness. She has particular expertise in genetic neuromuscular conditions and works in the statewide multidisciplinary service at RCH. She has a longstanding interest in childhood disability, both the medical aspects and other avenues to support people with disability to thrive in the community.

 

 

Kate is a paediatric neurologist and medical historian working in Melbourne. She has been a paediatric neurologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital since 2022, and worked in Victorian hospitals since 2007. Her current interests include supporting childhood disability particularly through the neuromuscular service, providing intraoperative neuromonitoring to patients undergoing surgery, and optimising transition of young people with complex disability from paediatric to adult health services.

 

Kate completed her undergraduate education in Medicine and Arts at the University of Melbourne. She paused her paediatric training to undertake a PhD in the History of Medicine at Yale University in Connecticut, USA (awarded 2015). Her research explores alternative models of care for disabled children, including “special education” in the nineteenth century. She is writing a book with UNC Press describing the experience of disability in the pre-Eugenic era. She teaches medical history and medical humanities at Melbourne and Monash universities, presents regularly at academic conferences, and is an active board member of the ANZ Society of the History of Medicine and the Medical History Society of Victoria.

 

Kate loves learning from her medical and allied health colleagues in the statewide paediatric neuromuscular service. She is chairing a working group in transition, aiming to bridge gaps between paediatric and adult health services with a particular focus on young people with complex and progressive disability as well as medical frailty. She runs a monthly clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital for young adults with neuromuscular conditions.

 

 

Kate uses her skills to help children and families arrive at an accurate diagnosis with a holistic management plan. She enjoys simple as well as complex medical problems, and is happy to see patients for a single consultation or long term care. She aims to make families feel heard, to share responsibility with parents, and to provide satisfying explanations for young people and their families.