Chair of Cerebral Palsy, Nadia Badawi, shares her story in Hearts and Minds podcast

Nadia leverages her research focus in ensuring the highest quality, evidence based neonatal care to sick babies, as well as utilising her clinical experience and observations to inform research direction. Putting the two together has vastly progressed the field in providing the earliest diagnosis and best interventions for CP, and to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes for children.  

Hosted by Hearts and Minds Investments CEO Paul Rayson, this conversation offers a glimpse into the incredible work Nadia and her team are doing, thanks in part to the generous funding from Hearts and Minds. 

Nadia Badawi is an internationally renowned neonatologist and a true leader in cerebral palsy research. Over the past two decades, Nadia and the teams she works with in neonatal intensive care and the CPA Research Institute have collaborated with families, philanthropists, governments, researchers and other health professionals across Australia and the globe.  

These combined efforts have contributed to reduction in the prevalence of cerebral palsy by 40% in Australia. Over that time, the severity has also reduced, children with born with cerebral palsy are more likely to walk and talk and less likely to have intellectual disability and epilepsy.   

In this podcast, Nadia shares her circuitous journey from initially wanting to study English literature to becoming a leading figure in neonatal care. She talks about the people who mentored her, the personal experiences that fuelled her passion for medicine and how privileged she feels to be able to do the valuable work she does.  

Nadia also discusses her patient-centred approach in collaborating with families to understand and treat children. She reflects on how the clinical community together supports care for these vulnerable children and their families, and how her teams trust and support each other.

Nadia delves into the current topics that are paving the way for more breakthroughs in CP: 

• the complexities of cerebral palsy, highlighting how recent research has uncovered that contrary to popular belief, some instances of CP are linked to genetic factors and prenatal conditions 
• the exciting advancements in technology and interdisciplinary collaborations that are driving progress in this field; 
• working with engineers and using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop innovative ways to enhance early diagnosis and treatment of cerebral palsy.