Modelling Neonatal Care Pathways

What is this project?

Following birth approximately 1 in 10 babies will require specialist neonatal care. These babies have a variety of medical issues, although often they will have been born preterm and this project focusses on the babies that have been born at <32 weeks gestational age.

Babies born at <32 weeks are often the sickest and smallest of babies in the neonatal unit. They will require long stays in hospital, and as survival has increased in this group, the amount of care they require has also increased.

The ability to accurately predict length of stay in this population is vital for resource planning, commissioning services and to aid clinicians in their counselling of parents. However, there is limited work in this area.

As well as predicting length of stay, this work aims to include babies that die during their neonatal care in all analysis. It will also consider different levels of care that are received during the neonatal stay. 

Where does the data come from?

The data for this project is routinely collected by neonatal units. I have permission from 100% of neonatal units in England to use this data.

Who funds this research and who works on it?

This project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research and is part of Sarah Seaton's PhD. Bradley Manktelow, Keith Abrams and Elizabeth Draper at the University of Leicester supervise the project. The data is provided by the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit at Imperial College, London.

Further information

Contact Sarah Seaton (sarah.seaton@le.ac.uk/+44 (0)116 252 5434).