Professor Elaine Boyle

I am Professor of Neonatal Medicine and Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) Professor in Child Health at the University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Neonatologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

Training:

I initially trained as a nurse from 1979 to 1982 at St Bartholomew’s School of Nursing, London and worked in nursing for a number of years before changing direction to study medicine at the University of Sheffield, and qualifying as a doctor in 1993. I completed postgraduate training in paediatrics in Sheffield and Birmingham. Before taking up my consultant post in Leicester in 2006, I trained in academic neonatal medicine in Edinburgh, and at McMaster University, Canada. During this time, I gained an MD for work on the assessment and management of pain in the newborn, an MSc in Epidemiology, and a PhD focused on enteral feeding in preterm neonates.

Research:

I was a member of the European Neo-opioid Consortium and UK National Principal Investigator for the EU-funded Europain Survey and a co-investigator on the UK multicenter SIFT - Speed of Increasing Milk Feeds Trial. I was a co-investigator for the Opti-Prem Study (Optimising care for babies born at 27-31 weeks of gestation), NESCI (Neonatal Unit Smoking Cessation Intervention), and TIGAR (Tracking the health, educational and economic impact of gestational age at birth: a longitudinal record linkage study) funded by the MRC.I am currently a co-investigator for Surviving Crying, a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Service to Support the Mental Health and Coping of Parents with Excessively Crying Infants, PremPath (Improving care of preterm infants) and DEXTA (DEXmedetomidine Trial of Adjunct Treatment with Morphine). The major focus of my own research is the effects of gestational age at birth on neonatal and childhood outcomes, and in particular the effects of moderate-late preterm and early term birth. I was the lead for LAMBS - Late And Moderately preterm Birth Studies, the first large population-based studies in the UK focused on this group of babies and led the development of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Framework for the Early Care of Moderate to Late Preterm Infants. I am Chief Investigator for SurfON, an ongoing large UK multicentre trial of the use of early surfactant versus expectant management in late preterm and early term infants with respiratory distress.

LCFC Research Programme:

I am the lead for the LCFC Research Programme, supported by funds generaously donated by Leicester City Football Club for research to improve child health in Leicester. The LCFC Programme supports PhD students and researchers to carry out studies using quantitative, qualitative and basic science methodologies to further explore the effects of late preterm and early term birth with the aim of improving care and experiences for babies, parents and families.

Professional Roles:

I am Editor-in-Chief for two scientific journals - Paediatric and Neonatal Pain (Wiley) and Maternal and Children's Health (Karger), Editorial Board member for Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine and Neonatology. I have held leadership roles within the NIHR Clinical Research Network:East Midlands since 2011 and am now the Settings Lead for Hospitals in the East Midlands Regional Research Delivery Network. I am current Chair of the Neonatal Clinical Studies Group, past Chair of EBNEO (International Society for Evidence-Based Neonatology), and chair of the Medicine, Biological and Psychology Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Leicester.

Publications:

For a full list of my publications, please see https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-5038-3148

Current research grants:

1. DEXmedetomidine Trial of Adjunct Treatment with Morphine (DEXTA): a masked, randomised placebo-controlled trial Role: Co-investigator; Funder:NIHR EME; Amount: £1,965,825.74

2. Improving care of preterm infants (PremPath) Role: Co-investigator; Funder NIHR PIP; Amount: 348,085.00

3. Surviving Crying: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Service to Support the Mental Health and Coping of Parents with Excessively Crying Infants; Role: Co-investigator; Funder: NIHR HTA; Amount: £2,040,824.00

4. SurfON (Surfactant Or Not): A multicentre open label, pragmatic randomised controlled trial of early surfactant therapy versus expectant management in late preterm and early term infants with respiratory distress; Role: Chief Investigator; Funder: NIHR HTA; Amount: £1,671,376.

Previous research grants:

• The NeSCi Study - Neonatal unit Smoking Cessation intervention development; Role: Co-investigator; Funder: NIHR RfPB; Amount: £149,074.

• Opti-Prem: Optimising care for preterm babies born between 27-31 weeks gestation in England; Role: Co-investigator ; Funder NIHR HS&DR; Amount: £924,460

• Tracking the Impact of Gestational Age on Health, Educational and Economic outcomes: a Longitudinal Record Linkage Study (TIGAR); Role: Co-investigator; Funder: Medical Research Council; Amount: £626,817

• Speed of Increasing milk Feeds Trial (SIFT) Role: Co-investigator; Funder: NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme; Amount: £2,723,826

• Development and preliminary evaluation of an intervention package to support parents of excessively crying infants Role: Co-investigator; Funder: NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme; Amount: £443,887

• The Hidden Risks of Preterm Birth: How should we follow up vulnerable babies? Role: Principal Investigator; Funder: NIHR Research for Patient Benefit; Amount: £249,125

• A population-based study of the health and developmental consequences of preterm birth; Role: Co-investigator; Funder: Bupa foundation; Amount: £126,435

• Development of a clinical tool for assessment of persistent pain in neonates Role: Principal Investigator; Funder: The Grace Research Fund, Coventry; Amount: £36,128

• NeoOpioid: No Pain during infancy by adapting off-patent medicines Role: Co-investigator; UK Principal Investigator for Europain Survey Study; Funder: FP7-Health-2007-B; Amount: €2,299,814

• Towards reducing variations in infant mortality and morbidity: a population approach Role: Co-investigator; Lead for Late and Moderate Preterm Birth Study (LAMBS); Funder: NIHR PGfAR; Amount: £1,171,358

• Neonatal Intensive care
• Moderate-late preterm birth
• Early term birth
• Neonatal pain

• FHEA 2016

• PhD, University of Edinburgh, 2011; Thesis: A survey of practice feeding of preterm and very low birth weight infants with particular reference to necrotising enterocolitis

• MD, University of Edinburgh, 2004; Thesis: A Study of the Effects of analgesia in acute and chronic pain in preterm infants

• MSc in Epidemiology (with Distinction), University of Edinburgh, 2003

• MRCP (UK) 1997

• MBChB, University of Sheffield, 1993

• SRN, St Bartholomew's School of Nursing, London 1982