DrCherylBattersby

Summary

Research

I am a NIHR Clinician Scientist, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, and Honorary Consultant Neonatologist at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. I am theme lead for Neonatal Medicine for the Imperial College Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health (PaeCH). I read Medicine at the University of Nottingham and completed Neonatal Medicine subspecialty training in 2018. 

In 2020, I was awarded a 5-year NIHR Advanced Fellowship to lead a programme of research neoWONDER: 'Neonatal Whole Population Data linkage to improve lifelong health and wellbeing of preterm babies'. I will link data from a 12-year cohort of babies held on the UK National Neonatal Research Database, to other population-level physical and mental health, and education data. This life-course approach at scale will help identify neonatal interventions that may improve the life-long health and wellbeing of preterm and sick newborns. By working closely with patients and parents, I will ensure that the research is meaningful and relevant to their needs. 

I completed my PhD at Imperial College, which focused on the epidemiology of Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC), a serious bowel condition that affects preterm babies. I led the first national prospective cohort study which quantified the incidence of severe NEC applying a consistent case-definition and examined feed-related antecedents. I am keen to apply my expertise in the development, interrogation and application of datasets more broadly across Child Health. 

I was past-Chair of the Data and Informatics group at the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) (2020-2023). Currently, my national leadership responsibilities include BAPM Honorary Secretary (2023-2026) and Deputy Chair of the NIHR HTA Prioritisation committee for Hospital Based Care. 

In 2021, I was delighted to be awarded the RCPCH Simon Newell early independent researcher award,  which recognised my strong commitment to training and supporting the next generation of researchers. I am founder and Consultant Lead for NeoTRIPS (Neonatal Trainee-Led Research and Improvement ProjectS), and was previously RCPCH Neonatal College Tutor at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (2019-2021).

My other interests include improving neonatal outcomes in low middle-income countries through collection and analysis of minimal data to inform improvements in care and appropriate use of technology. Since 2011, I have volunteered as a trustee and medical advisor for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and have experience of setting up a neonatal unit, working and teaching and working in low resource settings. 

I supervise PhD, MSc and BSc students undertaking research projects in the School of Public Health, and Reproductive and Developmental Medicine. I am happy to be contacted for more information or opportunities. 

Current PhD students 

Emily van Blankenstein: The impact of nutrition in very preterm infants on their long-term outcomes: a data linkage approach (primary supervisor)

Alice Aveline: Causal inference methodology to evaluate care and interventions for babies born preterm (primary supervisor)

Hannah Gannon: Resilience in the face of crises: Evaluating the implementation of a digital healthcare tool for newborns in Zimbabwe (co-supervisor)

Philippa Rees: Childhood outcomes after perinatal brain injury: a population-based linkage study (co-supervisor)

Sunjuri Sun: Long-term outcomes and early academic attainment following childhood surgery: a population-based study (co-supervisor)

Sarah Sturrock: Using machine learning to develop a risk stratification tool for neonatal sepsis in low-resource settings (co-supervisor)

George Bethell: Improving understanding of indications for and timing of surgery in infants with Necrotising Enterocolitis (co-supervisor)

Academic Clinical Fellow

Behrouz Nezafat Maldonado: neoSTAR: Neonatal Surgical Transfers and Access Research (primary supervisor)

Publications

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