2.1
Safe pregnancies and birth
Keywords
High risk obstetrics, fetal medicine, preterm labour, post-
partum haemorrhage, labour induction and monitoring
Expertise
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust and Alder Hey
Children’s NHS Foundation Trust are the largest hospitals
of its kind in the UK, but also located in one of the most
deprived areas of the developed world, with preterm birth
rates double the national average. The University’s research
team works to tackle the problems related to high risk
pregnancies leading to preterm births. We look at the risk
factors of complicated pregnancy and preterm births and
evaluate different interventions to reduce and manage these
risks, for example approaches to improve lung development
in preterm babies prior to and following induced birth.
We also investigate interventions and management
strategies for premature babies, with experts in paediatric
surgery, neonatal paediatrics and newborn intensive care.
Our global outlook and research findings have important
applications in less developed countries and settings with
limited resources.
Liverpool’s dedicated Women’s Hospital is one of
the largest of its kind in Europe, with more than 8,000
births each year. The University of Liverpool has
strong collaborations with the NHS to exploit this
unique situation.
The hospital supports mothers from early pregnancy
to beyond birth. Specialist outpatient clinics support
women who have had very preterm births or multiple
pregnancies with high preterm birth rates.
Premature babies and children with complications or
illnesses are treated by the hospital at Alder Hey until
they reach adulthood.
Relevant centres and groups
•
Centre for Better Births.
Health & Wellbeing
18
2.
Maternal and child health
2.2
Medicines for children
Keywords
Paediatric, child health, adverse drug reactions in
children, clinical research facility
Expertise
Liverpool is at the forefront of translational research and
development in children’s health and paediatric medicine
and is in a unique position to support the pharmaceutical
industry in developing interventions for children. Our
internationally-recognised expertise builds on our work
with the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, augmented by
the coordinating work of the NIHR Medicines for
Children Research Network (MCRN) and the NIHR
Clinical Research Facility (CRF) dedicated to
children’s medicines.
Our NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network
coordinates and galvanises paediatric research across
the UK. Its oversight helps to improve the efficiency and
quality of randomised controlled trials and other well-
designed studies of medicines for children and
adolescents, including those for prevention, diagnosis
and treatment.
The associated Clinical Trials Unit has a national
responsibility for organising and implementing clinical
trials of paediatric medicines. It provides a setting for
experimental and early phase clinical trials that are fully
compliant with regulatory requirements.
Capabilities and facilities
•
NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Alder Hey
Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
•
Neonatal Research Unit at Liverpool Women’s
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
•
Paediatric and neonatal phenotyping facilities
(
including 3T MRI and other imaging technologies,
neurophysiology, pathology support)
•
Expertise in the collections and use of dried blood
spots in clinical trials
•
Design and execution of ethical and fully compliant
paediatric clinical trials.
The NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network
supports pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies and contract research organisations
(
CROs) through all research and clinical stages. It
helps to design and organise paediatric clinical trial
feasibility studies, trial site identification, trial imple-
mentation, costings, ethics approval, staff training,
patient recruitment, data collection and compliance
support for new paediatric regulatory requirements.
The MCRN has adopted large numbers of paediatric
clinical trials in a wide range of indications from
companies such as Abbott Laboratories, MedImmune,
Shire Development, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Merck,
AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Roche and Novartis.
Relevant centres and groups
•
MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science
•
NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network
•
Clinical Trials Research Centre.
APPLICATION AREAS
•
Biotechnology
•
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals
•
Society and community
Also see:
Health & Wellbeing –
2.3
International maternal health,
page 19 and 20
7.
Clinical trials and evidence synthesis,
page 41
For further information
on all our specialist
centres, facilities and
laboratories
go to page
179
