RESEARCH
Ensuring healthy pregnancies and safe births
Every year over 400,000 babies are born in California, accounting for more than 10% of births nationwide. About 9% of these babies will be born preterm and 4% with a birth defect, and 10-12% will require care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). And while California has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the U.S., we still face significant challenges in ensuring healthy pregnancies and safe births.
Research to improve care
To meet the current moment, Stanford Medicine is presented with a great opportunity to care for and support babies and families in California and beyond. Research is a critical component toward improving care and establishes Stanford as a world leader in perinatal innovation.
Our Neonatal and Developmental Medicine faculty, trainees, and staff engage in basic, clinical, translational, and simulation-based research. Our scientific inquiries lead to advanced diagnosis of maternal, fetal, and neonatal conditions; identification of novel treatments and therapeutics; increased safety, efficiency, and quality of care; improved clinical outcomes; and prevention of disease and babies being born too soon.
Notable Divisional contributions and expertise
Cutting edge investigations and novel treatments of the following neonatal conditions:
Preterm birth
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
Pulmonary hypertension
Patent ductus arteriosus
Jaundice
Developmental kidney disease (e.g. renal agenesis)
Severe brain injury (e.g. hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy)
- Improvement in total parenteral nutrition
- Improvement and validation of neurodevelopmental monitoring via near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
- Application of pharmacometrics to research and recommend neonatal drug dosing requirements
- Leadership in the field of neonatal precision medicine with the use of machine learning and AI, multiomics, wearable devices, non-invasive monitoring at the bedside, advanced imaging modalities, and electronic medical records
- Elucidation of the physiologic mechanisms of developmental care
- Development and use of novel imaging techniques (e.g. optical reporting of gene expression in vivo)
- Development and use of non-invasive monitoring technologies (e.g. trace gas analysis)
- Formation and use of cutting-edge models of brain development derived from human stem cells (a.k.a. pluripotent stem cells)
- Expertise in the epidemiology of maternal morbidity, stillbirth, birth defects, preterm delivery, and numerous neonatal outcomes
- Expertise in health policy and healthcare economics as it pertains to pediatric and neonatal outcomes and quality of care
- Investigation of perinatal health disparities — their causes, impacts, and recommendations for ensuring equitable care for all families
- Direction of WHO recommendations for the care of preterm or low-birth-weight infants
- Application of simulation-based research to improve neonatal resuscitation and stabilization, intubation, and labor and delivery unit and NICU design
- Partnership with NASA’s Johnson Space Center to grow and improve simulation scenarios and debriefing
- Continuous membership in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network for over 3 decades
- Home to a Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, funded by the CDC, for nearly 3 decades
Research-driven organizations and programs founded within our Division
- Premature Infant Research Center (1962) – the first clinical research center in the nation dedicated to preterm birth and funded by the National Institutes of Health
- California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (1997) and California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (2006) — member-driven organizations that aggregate perinatal data from California and beyond, lead statewide quality improvement efforts, and disseminate evidence-based science to improve outcomes and quality of care for mothers and babies.
- Center for Advanced Pediatric & Perinatal Education (2002) — the nation’s first simulation-based training and research center dedicated to fetal, neonatal, pediatric and obstetric sciences
- Fetal and Pregnancy Health Program (2009) – provides novel therapies for individuals with complex pregnancies and rare fetal diagnoses and conducts clinical trials and research to improve prenatal imaging, diagnosis, and treatment
- March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford (2011) — the nation’s first transdisciplinary research center dedicated to solving the mystery of preterm birth