Other content tagged: news research
New series on cohorts of the Research on European Children and Adults born Preterm (RECAP preterm) project
Our new series presents the cohorts of the EU-funded project „Research on European Children and Adults born Preterm“ (RECAP preterm), which aims at contributing to a better understanding on the long-term effects of preterm birth and thus to an improvement of the follow-up of these children. A research cohort is a group of people who share a defining characteristic, e.g. in the case of RECAP preterm, the cohorts consist of children (and later adults) born very preterm or with very…
Read more
Euro-Peristat – more and better data for perinatal health
Euro-Peristat is a European research project that aims to improve perinatal health. The project collaborators and contributing experts developed common tools to assess perinatal health problems and health care in Europe and to monitor changes over time. These data are needed by clinicians, policy makers and parents for evaluating the situation in their countries and for making decisions about the health and healthcare of pregnant women and newborns. Euro-Peristat makes data available in reports, on their website and in scientific…
Read more
Training for parent organisations: workshop on the implementation of the standards
Training and knowledge about the European Standards of Care for Newborn Health are key for their implementation in the different countries. This is why EFCNI is thrilled to welcome another group of parent organisation representatives from 12 countries for a “Level III” training workshop (22 to 23 February) in Munich – again with an extra “crash course” for parent organisations who have never attended a workshop on the standards before. The workshop offers a broad perspective on aspects that are…
Read more
Regulatory Science to 2025 strategy – The European Medicine Agency (EMA) asks for stakeholders’ feedback
The European Medicine Agency (EMA) has published its draft on a "Regulatory Science to 2025" strategy for public consultation. Regulatory science is defined as the range of scientific disciplines that are applied to the quality, safety and efficacy assessment of medicinal products and that inform regulatory decision-making throughout the lifecycle of a medicine. The proposed strategy seeks to offer informed guidance on modern medicines development, facilitate the optimisation of regulatory science and critically assess…
Read more
EFCNI shares a parental view on cluster randomised controlled trials in newborn babies
EFCNI has repeatedly expressed concern about the lack of evidence in the treatment of newborn babies and has called for more research in this field. EFCNI is firmly convinced that more clinical trials are needed to develop new, safe and efficient treatments for newborns that are based on hard evidence. However, it is just as important to conduct the trials following high ethical and clinical standards. In a recent article, published in the scientific…
Read more
Collecting quality data is key: registries of babies treated for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) can improve health, care, and science
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a disease of the eye affecting preterm born babies. It is characterised by changes in the developing blood vessels of the retina (the light-sensitive layer in the back of the eye that sends visual signals to the brain). All preterm babies born before around 31 weeks of pregnancy or having a birth weight of less than 1,250g to 1,500g need to have eye examinations by a specialised eye doctor, called ophthalmologist, to check how the…
Read more
Neonatal real world data for research purposes – what is the parents’ view?
Real world data (RWD) in medicine is data derived from a number of sources, for instance surveys or focus group interviews that are associated with outcomes in a heterogeneous patient cohort in real-world settings. It is increasingly used for research purposes, yet there is a lack of data about parental views on the use of this data which had been collected in routine practice for research purposes. But…
Read more
How parents can help reduce and manage procedural pain in the NICU
In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), ill and preterm babies face a number of unpleasant and painful procedures, such as heel sticks to obtain blood samples, attachment and removal of EEG, or an eye examination. There are a number of methods how parents can help to reduce pain and anxiety in their baby, and a recent study from Finland1 examined the different methods, their benefits, and how widely they are practiced. In previous studies, non-pharmacological methods have been shown…
Read more
Experts call for father- and family-friendly processes in the neonatal units
The importance of bonding between mother and child is widely known, but a recent literature review paper[1], published in the Journal of Neonatal Nursing, shows that the bonding between father and child and the co-parenting of mother and father seem to be equally important. According to the authors of The Family Initiative’s International Neonatal Fathers Working Group, there is evidence that including fathers and engaging mothers and fathers as a team is beneficial to the whole family. Unfortunately, fathers are…
Read more
Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids might be associated with a higher risk of preterm birth
For decades, there were ongoing discussions whether a high intake of fatty acids, either by eating more sea fish or by taking fish oil supplements, can reduce the risk of preterm birth, and different studies produced different results. A new study [1], published in the journal EBioMedicine, now suggests that there might be a connection between low levels of fatty acids in the blood and preterm birth. In the new study from Olsen SF et al. , researchers looked at…
Read more
