Dr Lydia Kennedy provides specialist care to children in their first few years of life. She is a visiting medical specialist at Burnside War Memorial Hospital.
Dr Kennedy feels very privileged to care for children from their first ever birth day, in hospital after delivery and then in any needed follow-up care in our rooms at Prosper Paediatrics. Dr Kennedy has particular expertise in the care of preterm newborns and those with greater health care needs, as well as supporting the development of healthy infants within their families. She is interested in the care of infants with typical and atypical growth, development and attachment over the first few years of life.
Dr Kennedy also works with the South Australian Paediatric and Neonatal Retrieval Service, SAAS MedSTAR Kids. Here she coordinates and performs retrievals of sick babies and children from country and metropolitan SA.
Having studied medicine and completed most of her paediatric and neonatal training in the major hospitals in South Australia, Dr Kennedy has enjoyed post-fellowship rotations at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital NICU and Monash Children’s Hospital Neonatal Unit. Both are busy units and see infants referred for subspecialty input from across Victoria.
She has published papers including research on the use of cord glucose to predict the risk of low blood sugar in babies. She is an avid educator, seeing education as a means to encourage quality, evidence-based and up-to-date medicine. She is an honorary clinical lecturer at the University of Adelaide, and teaches medical students and s. She has been awarded a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Education (Flinders) and Graduate Certificate in Simulation Education (Monash). She trains health professionals in resuscitation of the newborn and child, and quality improvement.
In her spare time, Dr Kennedy is energised by spending time being active in nature with her young family
Special Interests
- Postnatal infant care
- Education
- Quality improvement