OVERVIEW. UT Houston is a member of both the MFM and Neonatal Research Networks. It provides the following to the Neonatal Network: 1. A large, high-risk, and growing population. In 2003, we had a total of 9212 deliveries, 1181 NICU admissions, & 369 VLBW infants in our 2 hospitals which house 136 total NICU beds: Memorial Hermann Hospital (MHH), a private hospital with a large referral base, and Lyndon Baines Johnson General Hospital, (LBJ), a county hospital serving a largely Mexican American population; 2. High total enrollment in Network studies. We ranked 3rd of 16 Network centers in the Hypothermia & Benchmarking Trials, 2nd in the Phototherapy & Glutamine Trials, and 1st in the Premie Inhaled Nitric Oxide Trial; 3. A PI & CoPI skilled in clinical research & committed to the Network. The PI is Jon Tyson, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Clinical Research and Evidence Based Medicine & recipient of the Douglas K. Richardson Award for perinatal and pediatric healthcare research and the Distinguished Educator Award from the Association of Clinical Research Training Program Directors. The CoPI is Kathleen Kennedy, MD, MPH, Director of the Perinatal Epidemiology Program and the Master's Degree Program in Clinical Research. They have served as PI and CoPI for the past 14 years (10 in Dallas & 4 in Houston) and are known for their dedication to exemplary research & helping other investigators. Dr. Tyson chaired the Vitamin A Committee (follow-up findings recently published), directs the Concurrent Research Committee, and is the only PI to have served continuously on the Protocol Review Committee since its inception. He has also been highly involved in the Hypothermia Trial (in press, New England Journal); 4. Multiple talented faculty taking major roles in Network research. These include a) Brenda Morris, MD who is directing the Phototherapy Trial (enrollment now completed; n = 1973 ELBW infants) and is site director for the SUPPORT Trial; b) Martin Blakely, MD, MS, a pediatric surgeon & K23 recipient who directed the recently completed the NEC Observational Study (1st manuscript published; 2nd in review). With Dr. Tyson, he is proposing a major trial based on the results; c) Robert Lasky, PhD, an NIH-funded neuropsychologist who is directing an important substudy of auditory brainstem evoked responses in the Phototherapy Trial (>50% of enrollment from UT Houston); d) Nehal Parikh, DO, a K23 award recipient, who is the site director for the ongoing aEEG study, the MRI secondary study of the Support Trial, and the proposed seizure prophylaxis trial; e) Sue Ramin, MD, PI of the MFM Network and advocate for Neonatal Network studies; and f) Larry Gilstrap, MD, Chairman of Obstetrics, Co PI of the MFM Network, and Neonatal Network Advisory Board member; 5. Methodological & multi-disciplinary expertise. The Center that Dr. Tyson directs provides ready access to 21 faculty with expertise in bioethics, biostatistics, epidemiology, health care economics, and health services research. ? ? ? ?
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