Dr Tim van Hasselt

Dr Tim van Hasselt is a neonatal intensive care doctor in training. His clinical work involves caring for babies born preterm or unwell on neonatal intensive care units, working alongside skilled multidisciplinary team members.

He completed an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Leicester in 2024, his thesis examined the long-term health outcomes of children born preterm.

Dr van Hasselt commenced as an Academic Clinical Lecturer in August 2024, with a clinical role at University Hospitals Leicester neonatal intensive care unit, and continuing research into the impact of preterm birth into childhood.

Free infographics for families and healthcare professionals explaining the risk of paediatric intensive care admission of very preterm-born children, with links to trusted resources from Bliss, the charity for sick and preterm babies, are available from the website.

Dr van Hasselt's research interests include:

• The impact of preterm birth on health outcomes in childhood
• Critical care in the neonatal period and in childhood
• Children with chronic long-term health conditions and medical complexity
• Communication of information to families of preterm and unwell children, using co-design approach
• Use of large-scale healthcare datasets and data linkage

Seaton SE, Battersby C, Davis PJ, Fenton AC, Anderson J, van Hasselt TJ, Draper E. Characteristics of children requiring admission to neonatal care and paediatric intensive care before the age of 2 years in England and Wales: a data linkage study. Arch Dis Child. 2024 Feb 12:archdischild-2023-325986. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325986.

van Hasselt TJ, Gale C, Battersby C, Davis PJ, Draper E, Seaton SE; United Kingdom Neonatal Collaborative and the Paediatric Critical Care Society Study Group (PCCS-SG). Paediatric intensive care admissions of preterm children born <32 weeks gestation: a national retrospective cohort study using data linkage. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2023 Nov 3:fetalneonatal-2023-325970. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325970.

van Hasselt TJ, Kanthimathinathan HK, Kothari T, Plunkett A, Gale C, Draper ES, Seaton SE. Impact of prematurity on long-stay paediatric intensive care unit admissions in England 2008-2018. BMC Pediatr. 2023 Aug 24;23(1):421. doi: 10.1186/s12887-023-04254-0. PMID: 37620856; PMCID: PMC10463455.

van Hasselt TJ, Webster K, Gale C, Draper ES, Seaton SE. Children born preterm admitted to paediatric intensive care for bronchiolitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pediatr. 2023 Jun 29;23(1):326. doi: 10.1186/s12887-023-04150-7. PMID: 37386478; PMCID: PMC10308614.

Rajaraman N, van Hasselt TJ; Paediatric Research Across the Midlands (PRAM) Network. What is the prevalence of portal vein thrombosis following umbilical venous catheter insertion in very preterm neonates? Arch Dis Child. 2023 May;108(5):411-413. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-325243. Epub 2023 Mar 13. PMID: 36914232.

Macaskill L, Slee S, van Hasselt TJ, Naseem M, Ewer AK, Surana P; Paediatric Research Across the Midlands (PRAM) Network; PRAM Collaborators. Impact of the new NICE guidance 2021 on management of early onset neonatal sepsis. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2023 Jan;108(1):87-88. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-322822.

van Hasselt TJ, McDermott H, Surana P, Eltahir R, Macaskill L, Jain R, McMullan N, Slee S, Jagga M, Naseem M, Alake O, Cherry C, Miguras B, Ewer AK; Paediatric Research Across the Midlands (PRAM) Network. Impact of neonatal sepsis calculator in West Midlands (UK). Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2021 Sep;106(5):568-569. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-320862. Epub 2020 Dec 8. PMID: 33293276.

van Hasselt TJ, Singham B, Bassett E, Wacogne ID; Paediatric Research Across the Midlands (PRAM) Network. Oxygen saturation thresholds in bronchiolitis: examining admissions. Arch Dis Child. 2020 Dec;105(12):1197-1199. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-317683. Epub 2019 Aug 28. PMID: 31462433.

van Hasselt TJ, Hartshorn S. Hanging and near hanging in children: injury patterns and a clinical approach to early management Archives of Disease in Childhood - Education and Practice Published Online First: 09 July 2018. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2018-314773

van Hasselt TJ; Question 1 What is the best sedative to give as premedication for neonatal intubation?; Archives of Disease in Childhood 2017;102:780-783.

van Hasselt TJ, Wacogne ID; QUESTION 1: What is the best therapy for children with Kawasaki disease who fail to respond to initial intravenous immunoglobulin? Archives of Disease in Childhood 2017;102:110-113.

van Hasselt TJ, Pickles O, Midgley-Hunt A, Jiang CQ, Zhang WS, Cheng KK, Thomas GN, Lam TH. Effects of tea consumption on renal function in a metropolitan Chinese population: the Guangzhou biobank cohort study. J Ren Nutr. 2014 Jan;24(1):26-31.

Dr van Hasselt has experience with supervision at Masters level.

Please contact if you would like to discuss supervision of future students.

Dr Tim van Hasselt assists with sessions of MRes and MSc programmes at the Department of Population Health Science, including the Quality and Safety in Healthcare and Medical Statistics courses.

During his clinical work Dr van Hasselt undertakes bedside teaching for other healthcare professionals in training and medical students. He is also an instructor for Newborn Life Support and Advanced Paediatric Life Support courses, and gives teaching for the paediatric speciality training programme. 

NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship 2021-2024

First Prize for Young Investigators Award, ESPNIC (2023)

BMedSc (1^st class hons) 2011, MBChB (hons) 2012 – University of Birmingham

Doctorate in Philosophy awarded April 2024 - University of Leicester