Children's Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine (CHISM) at The Children's Hospital at Westmead

The Children’s Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine (CHISM) is a unique clinical service. It is the only dedicated paediatric sport and exercise medicine service in Australia.

CHISM provides comprehensive paediatric sports and exercise medicine services to children across the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area and NSW country areas. CHISM uses an ambulatory model of care, primarily outpatient based, offering inpatient consultation to other specialty services to assist with early discharge.

The multidisciplinary team providing this service comprises paediatricians, sports physicians and exercise physiologists with input from physiotherapy services.

The Children's Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine offers an integrated approach to the care of children with sports-related problems. The services at CHISM consist of the following:

• Musculoskeletal and sports injury clinic
• Exercise testing and prescription
• Concussion evaluation and management
• Assessment of exercise intolerance

See the pdf of CHISM’s clinical services

Clinics

Location: Suite 13 Level 2, Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, Hainsworth St, Westmead

Clinic days: Alternate Mondays, Alternate Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays

Consultants:

• Dr Carolyn Broderick
• Prof. Gary Browne
• Dr Damien McKay

Appointments

To make an appointment, you'll need a referral letter to the specialist by name.

If you have a referral from your GP or paediatrican, complete the online webform

if you prefer, bookings can be made by contacting CHISM.

• Phone: (02) 9845 0761 between 9:00am and 4:30pm weekdays.
• Fax: (02) 9845 0432
• Email: chismsms.schn@health.nsw.gov.au

Referral information

Patient referrals come from a range of medical sub-disciplines from within The Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW) and Sydney Children's Hospital (SCH), including Oncology, Endocrinology, Respiratory Medicine, Rehabilitation, Rheumatology, Metabolic Genetics, Haematology, Orthopaedics, Weight Management Services, Nutrition and Dietetics, Physiotherapy and Adolescent Medicine, as well as community-based General Practitioners and Paediatrician

We see children and adolescents with:

• Acute sports injuries, including minor fractures and avulsions, sprains and strains, ligament injuries, joint dislocations
• Overuse musculoskeletal sports injuries (including traction apophysitis, stress fractures, tendinopathy)
• Sport-related concussion and return to sport clearance, for children and adolescents without prior neurologic or neurosurgical co-morbidities
• Growth-related musculoskeletal conditions in exercising children and adolescents (e.g. osteochondroses)
• Exercise-related symptoms including dyspnoea, cough, muscle pain, headache, abdominal pain, syncope, urticarial and poor exercise tolerance
• Heat-related illness and performance issues related to heat intolerance
• Unique conditions of the athlete with special needs
• Advice regarding sport/exercise/injury prevention/Therapuetic use exemptions(TUEs)/performance enhancement/overtraining

Exercise testing and prescription for special paediatric populations including children with:

• Diabetes/Insulin resistance
• Cancer
• Metabolic myopathies
• Haemophilia
• Connective tissue diseases
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome/Orthostatic Intolerance
• Metabolic bone diseases
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• Neurological disease (BIH, CVA)
• Cardiorespiratory disease

Referrals better managed by other clinical services include:

• Children under school age (alternative path – General Paediatrician)
• Gait abnormalities in preschoolers (alternative path – Orthopaedics/Developmental paediatrician)
• Obesity without complications (alternative path – Weight Management Unit)
• Non sport-related concussion (alternative path – Neurology/Kids Rehab)
• Investigation of poor gross motor skills (alternative path – General or Developmental paediatrician)
• Fractures, not including stress fractures or avulsion fractures (alternative path – Orthopaedics)

Triage categories

• Cat 1 - < 7 days (e.g. acute sports injuries – suspected avulsion fractures, acute knee injuries including suspected anterior cruciate ligament tears or patella-femoral dislocations)
• Cat 2 - < 14 days (e.g. All other acute sports injuries, concussion, all ED referrals)
• Cat 3 - < 30 days (e.g. children with cancer/post-BMT, stress fractures)
• Cat 4 - < 3 months (e.g. osteochondroses, CFS/POTS, mitochondrial myopathies, Type I diabetes)
• Cat 5 - 3-6 months (e.g. insulin resistance, joint hypermobility syndrome)

Exercise testing at CHISM

Exercise testing involves a walk/run on our treadmill or cycling on a bike while clinical measures such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen consumption are recorded. You may also undergo strength and balance testing.

 For the exercise test you will need to bring:

• Running shoes/trainers
• Exercise Clothing
• A Bottle of Water

The day before the test:

• Drink plenty of fluids
• Get a good night’s sleep

The day of the test:

• Come prepared to exercise
• Avoid food, caffeine for three hours before taking the test
• Avoid strenuous exercise on the day of the test
• Do not arrive fasting
• Continue your regular medications unless you have been advised otherwise

Information sheets

• Exercise in weight management
• Osgood Schlatter disease
• Resistance training guidelines
• Sever's disease
• Stress fracture Pars Inter-articularis
• Kids Health: Concussion information

Staff

Staff Specialists

• Dr Carolyn Broderick MBBS FACSP PhD
• Prof Gary Browne MD MBBS MSpMed FRACP FACEM
• Dr Damien McKay MBBS, BAppSc (Physiotherapy) MSpMed, Dip Paed, FRACP

Exercise Physiologists

• Nancy van Doorn BSc AEP
• Tina Bogg MSc BSc AEP

Physiotherapist

• Chloe Priest BAppSc (Physiotherapy)