Health Advisory Panels - Dr Janet E McDonagh

Janet is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology at the Institute of Child Health, University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Her clinical and research interests are in adolescent health, chronic illness and transitional care and she has directed and published several papers from the first multicentre objective evaluation of a transitional care programme. Other current research interests include the generic issues of transition which unite young people with any chronic illness such as peer support and vocational issues.

Janet is a member of the RCPCH Young People’s Health Special Interest Group (www.yphsig.org.uk) and editor of the monthly adolescent health resource e-newsletter 2007-

Janet also has a major interest in the development of undergraduate and postgraduate training in adolescent health in the UK and is involved in the RCPCH Adolescent Health Training Project to develop an e-learning training package (www.rcpch.ac.uk/ahp) “Communications Skills with Adolescents” project.

In 2007 Janet was appointed national clinical lead for the Department of Health’s “Transition Champions” Project.   In recognition of her work Janet was awarded the BUPA Foundation NHS Clinical Excellence Award 2005 for developing and delivering an evidence based adolescent rheumatology service. (www.dreamteam-uk.org). She is currently Editor of “Adolescent Rheumatology” (Informa Healthcare 2008) – a textbook highlighting the generic aspects of adolescent health in rheumatology and including a chapter written by young people themselves!