Children's Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine (CHISM) at The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Contact details
Appointments: (02) 9845 0761
Location: Suite 13, Level 2, Children's Hospital Medical Centre Hainsworth Street, Westmead 2145
Mailing Address: Locked Bag 4001 Westmead NSW 2145
Fax: (02) 9845 0432
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)