Program Head: Helen Liley
The Neonatal Research Program consists of 38 projects and covers:
- neonatal infection
- infant pain response
- neonatal lung disease and respiratory care
- strategies for improving training in neonatal resuscitation, newborn feeding, support and education for parents
- neonatal hypoglycemia.
With the arrival of Dr David Knight in mid May, projects relating to patent ductus arteriosus in premature infants are also anticipated. Helen Liley is a neonatologist in the Division of Neonatology at MMH. Diane Karamujic is a clinical research coordinator and neonatal nurse who will work closely with Helen Liley in supporting researchers in the Neonatal Program.
Every year more than 8000 babies are born at Mater Mothers' Hospital. While most have a healthy start, others struggle with their fragile grip on life for days—sometimes even months. Prematurity causes substantial perinatal mortality and morbidity. Neonatal intensive and special care practices need to undergo constant audit and refinement to ensure the best possible short and long term health outcomes. At the time of premature birth, every organ system in the infant is either unready to support extra-uterine life, is prone to injury, or both. Term infants can also encounter problems with the changes that need to occur in the function of every organ system in the body during the transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life. The neonatal research program focuses on improving care of babies who—due to prematurity, congenital anomalies or other causes—have problems with the adaptation to air breathing, to feeding by mouth, to sustaining a normal blood glucose level and avoiding serious systemic infection. The study also investigates the effects of the intrauterine milieu on infant responses, methods of improving staff training and best ways to communicate with and support parents.
Over 1400 premature and seriously ill babies spend anywhere from a couple of days to a few months in Mater Mothers' Intensive and Special Care Nurseries every year. In addition, 100 critically ill babies are retrieved from areas throughout Queensland and Northern New South Wales and brought to Mater Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane for specialised medical and nursing care. Our highly specialised team of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals work around the clock to provide the very best care to sick and preterm babies and their families.
Background/Previous Work
The Division of Neonatology and the Neonatal Units at MMH have a strong track record of contributing to major mulitcentre trials of aspects of neonatal intensive care. Strong links with obstetrics, maternal fetal medicine and the Growth and Development Program have enabled comprehensive contributions to research over the last 10 years. Three of these were of particular importance. The TIPP trial examined the effect of prophylactic indomethacin on premature infant outcomes. The BOOST study studied oxygen saturation targetting for premature infants after they reached 32 weeks maturity for improvement of a variety of short and long term outcomes. The ICE trial studied the effect of whole body cooling after hypoxic ischaemic events during birth for mitigation of brain injury. We are currently a participating centre in the BOOST-II study, which examines oxygen exposure from the first day onwards and expect to continue to support other important Australian and international research studies to improve the outcomes for premature and sick infants. The Division of Neonatology has also made contributions to the ACTOMag, ACTORDS, HAPO and other landmark national and international randomised controlled trials.
In recent years we have also been focussing on increasing the amount and significance of local investigator-initiated research in the neonatal unit. Research projects nearing completion (all in the analysis/write-up stage) include:
- a large randomised trial of methods of managing parenteral nutrition to prevent hospital acquired sepsis in very low birth weight infants (the “LOS” study)
- a randomised controlled pilot study of glucocorticoid to prevent hypoglycemia in premature infants
- a prospective observational study examining the effect of mannose binding lectin genotype and phenotype on risk for hospital acquired sepsis
- a comparison of methods of screening for detection of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria, among other projects.
Research Teams