Federal Grant to Bolster Neonatal Research Consortium

The University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences won a renewal of a federal grant to participate in the Neonatal Research Network, a data-sharing consortium focused on improving care for high-risk newborns.

The seven-year renewal is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and UNM is one of 15 academic health centers participating in the consortium.

The Neonatal Research Network aims to pool data related to the prevention and treatment of conditions impacting term and preterm infants. The press release indicates that since the network’s establishment in 1986, research coordinated through the consortium has supported clinical trials investigating pulmonary hypertension, brain hemorrhage, chronic lung disease, and retinal disease in premature infants.

“We do a number of studies looking at extremely preterm infants because they have a higher risk of morbidities and mortality,” explained Kristi L. Watterberg, MD, professor emerita in the UNM Department of Pediatrics, who serves as co-principal investigator on the grant, in the press release. “[The United States’] preterm birth rate has been stubbornly immovable for many years, higher than many developed countries.”

Clinicians at UNM Hospital typically see 40 preterm infants annually, some of whom are only 22 weeks old. These infants present with various complications, and UNM researchers follow some of these individuals for several years after birth to evaluate whether they experience lasting disabilities or other issues related to preterm birth complications.

“They get a breathing tube right at birth,” said Janell Fuller, MD, a professor of Pediatrics at UNM and principal investigator on the grant. “They are given artificial surfactant directly into their lungs and central lines through the umbilical code.” Infants are further monitored for additional conditions such as retinal detachment and brain bleeds and must remain in an incubator on a feeding tube until their weight reaches four pounds.

In addition to this expertise, UNM brings increased racial and ethnic diversity to the Neonatal Research Network’s population data.

“We are one of the smaller sites in terms of patient enrollment,” said Fuller. “That’s one of the things of value that we bring – the patient population and its uniqueness in comparison to other ethnicities. Even though we are a small center, the intellectual contribution we’ve made over the years is impressive.”

Other health systems are also leveraging data and analytics to address preterm birth in the US.

Earlier this month, Yolande Pengetnze, MD, a pediatrician and vice president of Clinical Leadership at Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, sat down with HealthITAnalytics to discuss her organization’s risk stratification program to predict preterm birth risk and intervene to prevent preterm births.