A/Prof Germaine Wong awarded NHMRC Excellence Award

Congratulations to Associate Professor Germaine Wong, who has received an NHMRC Excellence Award for her research in improving the health of children and young people with chronic kidney disease. A/Prof. Wong is a transplant nephrologist at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and researcher with the Centre for Kidney Research at Kids Research and the University of Sydney.

Kidney disease is a devastating illness in children and can lead to reduced quality of life and premature death.  A/Prof. Wong has found new evidence on the risk of cancer in patients suffering from kidney disease and has devised interventions and strategies for cancer screening and prevention in this at-risk population. She has also identified social inequality and poverty as the key drivers of poor health in children and young adults with kidney diseases.

Using these findings she has developed a life course approach to address the needs of these children and close the health gaps. These include the development of an equitable, transparent and efficient deceased donor kidney allocation algorithm that allows improved access
for the young and disadvantaged.

“I am really hoping that my current and future research will change the lives of Australians living with kidney disease. The devastating health outcomes in patients suffering from chronic kidney disease and the lack of quality evidence to support novel interventions to improve health have drawn me to this field of research,” she said.

This is the second award A/Prof. Wong has been honoured with this year, after receiving the prestigious Ian McKenzie Award for outstanding leadership in transplantation by the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand in May.