TIMMS: Improving outcomes for babies and children
TIMMS: Improving outcomes for babies and children
Explore the research being carried out by the TIMMS group at the University of Leicester.
Current research
Babies born at the limits of viability
2016 - ongoing
Only 1 in 500 babies are born before 24 weeks' of pregnancy however, they make up around a fifth of all baby deaths. This work aims to improve care for babies born at this extremely early stage of pregnancy particularly around consistent determination of signs of life.
Optimising care for women, parents and families experiencing mid trimester baby loss
2021 - 2026
This programme of work aims to optimise care for parents experiencing mid-trimester loss by reducing variation in policy and practice across the UK.
- Read more about optimising care for women, parents and families experiencing mid trimester baby loss
LCFC Programme of Research
The Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) Professorship was established following a generous donation from the LCFC to the University of Leicester. The donation is being used to fund research that aims to improve the health of Leicester’s children, both today and in the future.
MBRRACE-UK - Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries in the UK
2012 - ongoing
The MBRRACE-UK programme comprises the national surveillance of perinatal deaths, confidential enquiries into perinatal mortality and morbidity, and the national confidential enquiry into maternal deaths. Its aims are to provide robust information to support the delivery of safe, equitable, high quality, patient-centred maternity and neonatal health services.
PICANet - Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network
2002 - ongoing
The Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) is a national and international audit run jointly by the University of Leicester and the University of Leeds. PICANet collects data on all children admitted to a paediatric (children's) intensive care units and transport organisations. We use this information to improve health outcomes and identify the best treatment and care for children.
Standardising the PARCA-R (the Parent Report of Children's Abilities-Revised) questionnaire
The Parent Report of Children's Abilities-Revised (PARCA-R) is a parent questionnaire designed to assess the cognitive and language skills of 2 year old children. It is currently used to identify children born preterm who are at risk for developmental delay in clinical practice and in research studies. Although cut-off points were defined to identify children with moderate to severe developmental delay, they are not adequate to identify children with mild developmental delay. In this project we will use existing data to develop age- and sex-adjusted standardised scores that will allow clinicians and researchers to quantify precisely a child's developmental stage in relation to the norm and to screen all children for developmental delay.
The project is funded by a research grant from Action Medical Research and is led by Professor Samantha Johnson here at the University of Leicester. The project team includes Dr Bradley Manktelow and Dr Vasiliki Bountziouka (University of Leicester), Dr Louise Linsell (University of Oxford), Professor Peter Brocklehurst (University of Birmingham), Professor Dieter Wolke (University of Warwick) and Professor Neil Marlow (University College London).