Other content tagged: news research
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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EPICE/SHIPS consortium provides new knowledge on breast milk feeding of very preterm infants in Europe
On the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week 2018, we are happy to share these recent findings regarding practices of breastfeeding preterm infants. As a proud partner within the EPICE/SHIPS research consortium EFCNI is happy to present newest results on breast milk feeding outcomes in European NICUs and after discharge. Two publications using data of a Europe-wide cohort of very preterm infants investigated manifold factors associated with breastfeeding rate and duration after discharge. Due to the benefits of breast milk for…
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First RECAP preterm-related publication is out – a meta-analysis on the association of preterm birth and adult markers of wealth
RECAP preterm proudly announces that a first research paper is published now in Pediatrics: Bilgin, Mendonca & Wolke performed a metanalysis investigating whether preterm birth and low birth weight are associated with markers of wealth in adulthood. A prospective longitudinal and registry study containing reports on selected wealth-related outcomes in preterm or low-birth-weight-born adults compared with term-born controls was conducted. To compile the database the authors searched Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Embase and could include 23 studies…
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Regenerative Therapies for sick term and preterm born infants
An interview with Professor Mario Rüdiger, Professor for Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine, Head of Department at the Neonatal Research Group at the University Hospital Dresden, Germany What was the idea behind the planned project? In the past decades, improvements in feto-neonatal care have significantly reduced mortality. Long-term morbidity however, still represents a major problem. Most prominent disease entities with a feto-neonatal origin are chronic lung disease of preterm infants, sepsis and brain injury. Though affecting hundred thousands of patients…
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