Research Focus

Critical Care & Respiratory Medicine

Area of Research

Neonatal research, especially methodological and physiological studies on neonatal lung function in premature birth. Diagnosis and therapy of chronic lung diseases. Clinical studies and meta-analyzes in newborns

• 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

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)

• 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