Dr Melinda Barker
Director, Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program
Dr Melinda Barker is a clinical neuropsychologist who commenced with The Royal Children’s Hospital, Centre for Community Child Health in 1995. She was instrumental in the administration and evaluation of the original Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP), which has been running since 1992.
Since then Melinda has had a strong focus on projects and programs relating to children’s health, learning and development. In 2003, Melinda was the Program Coordinator for VicNIC, a pre-discharge hearing screening program for neonates in intensive care. After working to demonstrate the benefit of newborn hearing screening, the new and improved VIHSP began rolling out in 2005 and now conducts newborn hearing screening in all maternity hospitals in Victoria. This world class program employs over 150 staff across the state and screens over 75,000 newborns each year, with almost 98% of those newborns completing their screen within the first 4 weeks of age. Thanks to VIHSP, the median age of diagnosis in Victoria has dropped from 23 months of age to one month of age. VIHSP also provides the much-needed early support to families of infants who are newly diagnosed, while they are navigating the sometimes complex pathway.
Affiliations
- Honorary Research Officer, Community Health Services Research, Population Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
- Honorary Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne
- Member of the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee
Awards
- 1998 VicHealth Research to Practice Award for the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program
- 2010 Royal Children’s Hospital Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program - Team Award
Contact
Email: [email protected]
