Prof. Damian Roland
@damianroland.bsky.social
Honorary Professor of Paediatric Emergency Medicine Urgent and Emergency Care System Clinical Director (Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) @uniofleicester (https://bit.ly/3MrD1vZ) Past Chair PERUKI; Team EM3 & @DFTBubbles #FOAMed #PEMSky
Paediatrics – not just little decision making Thanks to the @RCPCHtweets for making all their Grand Round sessions freely available. Here is my humble offering! learning.rcpch.ac.uk/home/webinar... (Huge COI with the Reading list at the end but some of my favourite muses are there!)
learning.rcpch.ac.uk
If you have a baby who struggles with a completely normal physiological consequence of growing please don’t stick a plastic tube up their bum… MHRA formally advise to stop using these over the counter treatments www.gov.uk/drug-device-...
Was asked to do a lecture at the International Conference of Emergency Medicine (ICEM) in Hamburg on "Recognising the Critically Unwell Child" I managed to sum up an approach using HAMBURG (yes a little twee but the audience seemed to enjoy the sentiment!)
Huge thanks to @dennisrenmd.bsky.social for his leadership on this paper on Fever. Hot or Not? Myths and Misconceptions About Antipyretics for Paediatric Fever www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Still amazing that clinical response to antipyretics is not an evidence-based diagnostic tool...
Hot or Not? Myths and Misconceptions About Antipyretics for Pediatric Fever
sciencedirect.com
The #StarWars guide to decision making rolobotrambles.com/starwarsdeci... Blog ideas from Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo and Admiral Akbar... #MaytheFourthbewithyou #StarWars
🚨Great news for children! 🚨 In 2012 we knew we could treat significant forearm fractures in children without surgery www.ovid.com/jnls/jbjsjou... It's only taken another 14 years to demonstrate this is in a RCT crafft.digitrial.com/results Well done @MrDanPerry and team!
What do we mean when we say ‘meningitis’ #TikTok #meningitis vm.tiktok.com/ZNR9cXHSp/
TikTok - Make Your Day
vm.tiktok.com
Reminded by the @hsj.co.uk mythbuster on the importance of Group-Think I constantly think about Collective Competence as it's so important for the groups in which I work - either within the Emergency Department or System level meetings rolobotrambles.com/groupthinkat...
"I do wish to defend, in part, the non-apology" dontforgetthebubbles.com/a-non-apology/ #ICYMI
A Non-Apology
Life is not short of apologies. Whether it’s being late for work, accidentally knocking into someone, or speaking out of turn on a virtual call, everyone says “sorry” relatively often. It’s almost a r...
dontforgetthebubbles.com
Was great working with a diverse team on this The Importance of Health Education in Schools: Reflections, Representation & Recommendations www.mdpi.com/2813-2882/4/... We challenge some perceptions on consent and argue for more focused health education #education #health
Immunisation & Vaccine effectiveness only part of the story To work they need to be implemented. Our multinational European study examined the impact of different preventive strategies against #RSV in infants attending Emergency Departments (EDs) & hospital admissions. 1/2
Feel a little silly for missing this... For the last couple of months I've been reporting on a relatively persistent #RSV positivity and admission rate in which the impact of the RSV vaccine wasn't clear. BUT... 1/3 x.com/Damian_Rolan...
x.com
Apologies - late with update. #Flu, non withstanding potential for slight upticks based on prior curves, was, overall, of lower impact than previous years. 1/2
Great interview by Amol Rajan on BBC Radio 4 Today programme with <16-yr-olds on Social Media Is issue #SoMe, particular platforms or infinite scrolling function itself? Amol's screen time was the highest; does a ban on <16s just hide a bigger problem? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (1hr34m39s)
Today - 22/01/2026 - BBC Sounds
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
bbc.co.uk
#RSV remains relevant in respiratory milieu Overall declining trend but vaccination hasn't hugely impacted on admission rates (volume of admissions may have decreased) Of note is increasing rates in 75 years + (especially given relatively successful vaccination programme)
When the cannula you’ve delicately placed in the veinless ex-pre-term infant flashes back, you sigh, grin and feel a nice inner glow before the vein tissues as you push fluid through…. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis...
Australian Open 2026: Sebastian Ofner celebrates early before losing to Nishesh Basavareddy in qualifying
Sebastian Ofner is out of Australian Open qualifying after forgetting the rules and celebrating victory early - before going on to lose eight of the next nine points.
bbc.co.uk
Reviewing photos from recent trip to Australia The Black Swan has a fascinating story described by Nassim Taleb in his great book of same name. Many medical insights from Taleb’s interpretations. My favourite explaining the dissonance between emergency dept’s & specialties
Interesting trends in #RSV. Overall a muted year in relation to positivity (hopefully due to the RSV vaccine) but admission rates don't seem to have been hugely affected and sadly impact on under 5s perhaps not as great as might be expected. www.gov.uk/government/s...
So looks like #Flu didn't end up being the monster year it might have been (despite starting a little earlier than normal) There have been double spikes (note 2023-24) so doesn't necessarily mean that we can relax yet though.
Lots in the news today on #Flu. The real challenge here is timing rather than volume (don't believe anyone using the term SuperFlu) Graphs aren't dramatically out of kilter with previous years but they are displaced forward. Worry is knowing if the upward trend continues...
I spoke at Excellence in Paediatrics this week on why paediatric guidelines can be so challenging to implement. I identified four themes i) Cognitive Biases and Prior Beliefs ii) Influences of Third Parties iii) Guideline is incorrect iv) Challenges with Communication and Interpretation
🚨Hot off the press🚨 (and now receiving national attention: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...) ➡️ Flu continues its slighty earlier curve with trajectory identical to previous winters ➡️ Difficult to know where/when RSV will peak but admission significant compared to previous years
Great to (finally) see the @NHSEngland A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions data set including a Paediatric Split! Top 10 by attendances below..... Will work on sharing other key findings soon www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/s...
Did you have a baby that had meningitis in their first 3 months of life? We're inviting parents to join a research advisory group to help guide and design a new study about babies with bacterial meningitis. If you're interested in taking part or have any questions, please get in touch.
#RSV just taking its time this year. Has the vaccine muted it's peak or just flattened the overall area under the curve....? (note admission rates not too far away from following 2022-23 curve) www.gov.uk/government/s...
