28 November 2016
Diagnosing rare diseases brings music to Molly's ears
Australian music icon Molly Meldrum dropped into King Edward Memorial Hospital to congratulate WA Health’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program on its success in diagnosing children with rare and as yet undiagnosed medical conditions.
(L-R from back) Adrian Fretwell, Gareth Baynam, John Day, Jamie McNair, Molly Meldrum, Lily Fretwell and Jessica Jackson
The program – an Australian first – began earlier this year with hopes of achieving a 25 per cent success rate but it has almost tripled those early expectations having diagnosed five of its first seven cases.
Meldrum took time out of his busy schedule to meet families who have participated in the program and congratulate the program’s director Gareth Baynam on its remarkable achievement.
The key to WA’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program is a comprehensive review of the patient’s case by a team of medical experts from relevant specialties.
A place in the program can also involve up to five days at Princess Margaret Hospital’s ambulatory day care facility, seeing consultants across multiple specialties and undergoing clinical assessments and investigations.
Most of the cases taken on by the program will have a rare disease, a condition that affects fewer than one in 2000 people.
Rare diseases usually:
- stem from a genetic anomaly
- cannot be prevented
- are disabling and incurable
- are difficult to treat
- affect multiple systems of the body.
Read the media statement (external site).
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