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Biography
I am an academic neonatologist with a broad research portfolio keen on cross-discipline collaboration. My research focus is the development and integration of healthcare technologies for neonatal care. In particular, I am involved with medical device development in the fields of neonatal resuscitation, neonatal transport, neonatal monitoring and diagnostics, and artificial intelligence (AI). My goals are to enhance delivery of neonatal care to improve key outcomes including brain injury and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
I work with parent groups/charities, funders and industry to develop and deliver neonatal studies. I'm the national Theme Lead for Neonatal Technologies at the NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative. I am the lead for neonatal transport research as part of the UK Neonatal Transport Group and created the UK Neonatal Transport Research Collaborative (UK-NTRC).
I'm passionate about neonatal research and support early career researchers across a number of disciplines including clinicians, allied-healthcare professionals, engineers, physical scientists and computer scientists. Currently I supervise:
Dr Tng Chang Kwok - Neonatal Clinical Fellow exploring AI application in the field of neonatal prediction and clinical trials.
Dr Aarti Mistry - Neonatal Clinical Fellow looking at new ways to improve neonatal transport improving safety and outcomes.
Dr Syed Taha, Neonatal Clinical Fellow developing newborn delivery technologies to advance the care of high-risk infants.
Mr Simon Stockley - PhD Engineering student exploring better ways to monitor infants including novel pulse oximetry approaches.
Miss Karina De Almeida Lins - PhD Chemistry student developing amazing new polymer coatings for neonatal devices to prevent biofilm production.
Dr Rozzie Simpson - Academic Clinical Fellow in paediatrics studying the science of newborn noise exposure and unique attenuation systems.
Expertise Summary
Neonatal clinical studies
Newborn resuscitation
Newborn transport
Medical device development
Application of artificial intelligence in neonatology
Teaching Summary
Module lead for Undergraduate Child Health 2010-2013
Research Summary
Neonatal Resuscitation and monitoring
Developing better ways of monitoring newborns in the delivery room.
Neonatal inter-hospital transport
Developing safer ways to transport neonatal patients at high risk of a poor outcomes. Focus on the stressful environment (noise, whole body vibration, temperature) and integrated data approaches. Understanding the impact of the transport pathway on outcomes through large scale database analyses.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
Understanding the causes (for example the impact of respiratory viruses) and epidemiology of BPD. Developing AI approaches to prediction of BPD and subsequent targeted clinical trials.
Technology and medical device development
Advancing neonatal MedTech in key areas. Providing expert input into device development and signposting/collaboration linkage to ensure acceleration and translation of devices into neonatal care.
Selected Publications
SHAIRBANU ZINNA, ARTHI LAKSHMANAN, SHIN TAN, REBECCA MCCLAUGHRY, MARTIN CLARKSON, SHIU SOO, LISA SZATKOWSKI and DON SHARKEY, 2016. Outcomes of Nosocomial Viral Respiratory Infections in High-Risk Neonates Pediatrics. 138(5), e20161675 BLAXTER L, YEO M, MCNALLY D, CROWE J, HENRY C, HILL S, MANSFIELD N, LESLIE A and SHARKEY D, 2017. Neonatal head and torso vibration exposure during inter-hospital transfer. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part H, Journal of engineering in medicine. 231(2), 99-113 GALE, CHRIS, QUIGLEY, MARIA A., PLACZEK, ANNA, KNIGHT, MARIAN, LADHANI, SHAMEZ, DRAPER, ELIZABETH S., SHARKEY, DON, DOHERTY, CORA, MACTIER, HELEN and KURINCZUK, JENNIFER J., 2021. Characteristics and outcomes of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK: a prospective national cohort study using active surveillance LANCET CHILD & ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 5(2), 113-121