Research Focus

Critical Care & Respiratory Medicine

Area of Research

Neonatal research, in particular methodological and physiological studies on neonatal lung function in preterm infants. Diagnosis and therapy of chronic lung diseases. Clinical trials and meta-analyses in neonates.

Approved Research Projects

• Swiss National Science Foundation, Restricted versus liberal fluid intake for prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia - RELIEF trial. A cluster-randomised multiple period cross-over trial
• THOMI-HOPF Foundation Paediatric Clinical Research at UKBB – fostering early career advancement of young academic paediatricians in Northwestern Switzerland (competitive grant)
• Swiss National Science Foundation, Predictive value of heart rate variability on cardiorespiratory events of preterm infants routinely immunised in the hospital
• Special Program Paediatric Research, UKBB, Heart rate variability of preterm infants prior to and after stopping of respiratory support
• Kommission für Technologie und Innovation KTI, Forced-oscillation technique for improving lung function and respiratory care in preterm infants
• European Respiratory Society, Forced oscillation technique to measure breath-by-breath lung function in preterm neonates

Collaborations

National Collaborations

• Paediatric pulmonology research group of Urs Frey, UKBB
• All SwissNeonet Level III neonatal intensive care units in Switzerland (Aarau, Berne, Chur, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, St Gallen, Zurich) (clinical trials, SwissNeoNet projects).
• Prof Philipp Latzin, Division of Paediatric Pulmonology, Inselspital and University of Berne (lung development projects)
• Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (biomedical engineering)
• Prof Olivier Baud, University of Geneva (lung development)

International Collaborations

• Prof Bela Suki, University of Boston, MA (advanced mathematical time-series analyses)
• Prof Raffele Dellaca, Politecnico di Milano, Italy (lung function/lung development/biomedical engineering)
• Dr Kerstin Jost, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden (biomedical engineering)
• Dr Sotiris Fouzas, Patras University, Greece (lung function/lung development)
• Prof Jane Pillow, University of Western Australia (lung function/lung development)

Ongoing Research Projects

• Predictive value of heart rate variability on cardiorespiratory events of preterm infants routinely immunised in the hospital
• Air Pollution and Effects on Lung Functional Development and Respiratory Morbidity in At-Risk Infants (PI: Urs Frey)
• Paediatric Clinical Research at UKBB – fostering early career advancement of young academic paediatricians in Northwestern Switzerland (THOMI HOPF Foundation grant)
• Prospective observational study on an individualized PEEP optimization strategy in neonates on respiratory support
• ALBINO: Multi-centre clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of allopurinol in term neonates
• ROPROP study :Multi-centre clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of oral propranolol for prevention of threshold retinopathy of prematurity