August 2016 meeting

Developing Maternal & Perinatal Clinical Trials

Photo Sydney meeting3

The aim of this workshop was to:

  • Foster collaboration within the IMPACT Network community
  • Develop new interactions and relationships
  • Set up a pipeline of studies supported by the IMPACT Network

Calls for abstracts went out at the PSANZ congress in Townsville and 3 concepts were presented for development into a funding application. The faculty consisted of a statistician (Andrew Martin), a trialist (Lucille Sebastian), health economist (Rachael Morton) and consumer advisor (Victoria Bowring). Our facilitators for each of the concepts were extremely experienced, internationally renowned experts: Jane Harding, Jane Norman and Lesley McCowan. A mock review panel was convened from within the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre: John Simes, Lisa Askie and Wendy Hague.

The concepts that were championed:

  • The value of routine late third trimester USS and planned delivery to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality due to fetal growth restriction Sailesh Kumar
  • Should we use lower or higher oxygenation to resuscitate preterm infants? A cluster crossover mega-trial Ju Lee Oei and William Tarnow-Mordi
  • Ultrasound indicated cervical cerclage to improve newborn outcomes Jonathan Morris

At least two of these concepts have progressed to funding applications thus far.

The next concept workshop will be happening in August 2017.