Dr Velencia Soutter (Paediatrician)
- Name
- Dr Velencia Lee Soutter
- Occupation
- Paediatrician
- Paediatric Immunology and Allergy Specialist
- Gender
- Female
- Medical Specialties
- General Paediatrics
- Paediatric Immunology and Allergy
After graduating from University of Queensland, Velencia moved Sydney to begin physician training at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) but after two years in adult medicine she decided to focus on a career in Paediatrics. She completed her training in paediatrics at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (RAHC) in Camperdown. During her training she followed her husband to the United States where she worked at the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda Maryland as a research fellow on nutrition research projects. It was in the second year in the USA at Mt Sinai Hospital in New York where she began her career interest in nutrition and gastroenterology as a Fellow in paediatric gastroenterology. On returning to Australia with a young baby, Velencia took up a position at the RAHC Emergency Department for the next two years guiding younger doctors in their assessment of sick children before being awarded an NH&MRC grant to study malnutrition, body composition and nutritional rehabilitation in children with cystic fibrosis. The study in the Department of Gastroenterology took more than 5 years to complete as two more children were added to the family. After this time and a further sabbatical in the USA, the Children's Hospital moved from the inner west to the outer west of Sydney and thus her work at the Allergy Unit of the RPAH's Department of Immunology began using her now extensive knowledge of nutrition and gastroenterology to manage children with complex allergic disease, food reactions and dietary restrictions. Investigating the role of dietary issues in children's health and development have remained Velencia's key areas of interest. Her enthusiasm for helping students and new graduates continued for many years and she has supervised and supported many dietetic students in their research projects outside of a a heavy clinical workload. A long list of these projects can be found at www.allergy.net.au and following the links to publications and student projects. We are fortunate at Queensland Allergy Services to have the skills of Dr Velencia Soutter, on our team. She now divides her time between working in our Southport practice and the busy Allergy Unit of the RPA Hospital in Sydney, to bring her much needed skills to South-east Queensland. Velencia's role at the RPA Allergy Unit has been an extremely rewarding one as a key member of the team in the development and publication of "Friendly Food" and "The Elimination Diet Handbook". Her work as an author was an invaluable contribution to the aim of the project in developing educational material on food allergy to help those with ongoing dietary problems to gain a greater understanding of issues that need to be addressed to improve their quality of life on all levels. Her work on dietary intolerances, food allergies and nutrition, especially in infancy and childhood, continues to be her main interest and writing about her experience remains a work in progress. Despite having a busy work schedule Velencia finds time for her various hobbies, which include photography, scuba diving, cooking and understanding flavour and taste preferences. She enjoys her quiet time reading an eclectic range of materials and knitting while pondering new projects to manage her property in the Gold Coast hinterland.
- Affiliated Clinics
- Queensland Allergy Services
- Affiliated Organisations
- Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology
- Australasian Society for the Study of Obesit
- Nutrition Society of Australia
Practice Locations
Gold Coast
- Queensland Allergy Services
- Address
- Pacific Private Clinic
Suite 4 Level 5
123 Nerang Street
Southport QLD 4217
Australia
- Phone
- 07 5591 5744
- Fax
- 07 5503 1299
