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
Journals
Smith LK, van Blankenstein E, Fox G, et al. , 2023, Effect of national guidance on survival for babies born at 22 weeks' gestation in England and Wales: population based cohort study, Bmj: British Medical Journal, Vol:2, ISSN:0959-535X
van Hasselt T, Gale C, Battersby C, et al. , 2023, Paediatric intensive care admissions of preterm children born <32 weeks gestation: a national retrospective cohort study using data linkage, Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition, ISSN:1359-2998
Evans K, Battersby C, Boardman JP, et al. , 2023, National priority setting partnership using a Delphi consensus process to develop neonatal research questions suitable for practice-changing randomised trials in the UK, Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition, Vol:108, ISSN:1359-2998, Pages:569-574
Hurrell A, Webster L, Sparkes J, et al. , 2023, Repeat placental growth factor-based testing in women with suspected preterm pre-eclampsia: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial, The Lancet, ISSN:0140-6736
van Blankenstein E, Sodiwala T, Lanoue J, et al. , 2023, Two-year neurodevelopmental data for preterm infants born over an 11-year period in England and Wales, 2008-2018: a retrospective study using the National Neonatal Research Database, Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition, ISSN:1359-2998