Imperial College London

DrCherylBattersby

Faculty of MedicineSchool of Public Health

Clinical Senior Lecturer in Neonatal Medicine
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3315 3047c.battersby Website

 
 
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Location

 

G.4.4.Chelsea and Westminster HospitalChelsea and Westminster Campus

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Summary

 

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). 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

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