Meet the Speakers - BAPM Annual Conference 2022

Julia Bird 

Live Workshop: Schwartz Round.

Julia Bird is a Clinical Psychologist and Groupwork Practitioner. She has worked for a number of years in a range of healthcare settings, including providing dedicated psychological input on University Hospital Plymouth NICU in the south west peninsula. Work included support for parents (individual, couple and group) and staff consultation.

Dr Topun Austin

Talk: Near Infrared Spectroscopy – is it a useful clinical tool in the preterm baby (yet)?

Topun Austin is a Consultant Neonatologist in Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Neurophotonics at University College London. He is the Director of the Evelyn Perinatal Imaging Centre (EPIC), based at the Rosie Hospital, Cambridge. His main research interests are in brain development and injury in the newborn, using novel monitoring and imaging technologies to assess cerebrovascular reactivity and neurovascular coupling as well as ways of assessing early infant behaviour and functional brain connectivity. He works closely with Professor David Rowitch (Head of Paediatrics, Cambridge University) in the development of the Cambridge NeuroNICU, developing a brain-orientated model of care for newborn infants in intensive care.

Professor Samir Gupta

Samir Gupta is Professor of Neonatology at Durham University and Fellow at National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford University. He has been visiting professor to NICUs in Hong Kong, Slovakia, Oman, India, UAE, Argentina, Norway & Egypt, and academic examiner for universities in UK, Europe, India and Australia. 

He is Chief investigator of Baby-OSCAR trial on patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). He has established Neonatal hemodynamics program at Sidra Medicine with a team of clinicians, that has significantly improved neonatal outcomes in surgical, complex and sick newborn infants. He works collaboratively with Pediatric cardiology and fetal medicine division to improve the care of complex cardiac patients admitted to the NICU.

Talk: Baby-Oscar and other PDA trials - Where next with the PDA?

Dr Janet Berrington

Talk: Should we all be using probiotics on preterm babies?

Janet Berrington is a cConsultant neonatal paediatrician in Newcastle, UK. She is also the manager of the Great North Neonatal Biobank – a tissue and sample repository of more than 1000 infants <32 weeks gestation. She has a major research interest in NEC, the microbiome, breast milk and gut health, including translational work and clinical trials.

Dr Mark Johnson

Talk: Growing Neonatal Nutrition Teams

Mark Johnson is a consultant neonatologist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and an honorary senior clinical lecturer in neonatal medicine at the University of Southampton.  He is also currently the clinical lead for neonatal medicine in Southampton.

Dr Johnson's research centres around the nutritional care and growth of premature babies, and the implementation of practice change in order to improve care. Dr Johnson was also a co-author of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Framework for Practice for Parenteral Nutrition in Neonatal units.

Dr Hena Syed-Sabir

Talk: Caring for the carers - staff Challenges in giving long-term compassionate care

Dr Hena Syed-Sabir is a Clinical Psychologist and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist (PICU & KIDSNTS) working at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Twitter: @DrHenaSyedSabir

Prof Afif El-Khuffash

Talk: Haemodynamic assessment and management of hypotension in the preterm

Prof EL-Khuffash is a Consultant Neonatologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and a Clinical Professor of Paediatrics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His primary clinical and research area is the assessment heart function in term and preterm neonates. He is the lead for neonatal echocardiography and heart function assessment in the neonatal intensive care unit in the Rotunda Hospital. He is also a board certified lactation consultant.

He is the lead author/editor of the Haemodynamic Module in the NOTE project, offering a new international online Masters level educational programme in neonatal medicine as collaboration between the European Society for Neonatology (ESN) and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton.

Caroline Lee-Davey

Talk: Supporting non-birthing partners

Caroline has been Chief Executive at Bliss, the national charity for babies born premature or sick, since November 2014. In this role she also sits on the Executive Committee of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, NHS England’s Neonatal Clinical Reference Group, and the Scottish Government’s Best Start Implementation Programme Board, among others. Bliss’ new three-year strategy for the period 2022-2025 puts a significant focus on tackling health inequalities as one of its core strategic themes.

Before joining Bliss Caroline was the Director of Policy, Advice and Communications at Gingerbread, the single parent charity, where she led on policy and campaigning work as well as overseeing the delivery of multi-channel information and advice services. Caroline was previously Deputy Director of Communications, Policy and Campaigns at housing charity Shelter.

Dr Liz McKechnie

Live Workshop: FICare - where next?

Dr McKechnie is a Consultant Neonatologist at Leeds Centre for Newborn Care and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds.

Dr Sandeep Shetty

Talk: Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) - the new gold standard for the newborn?

Dr Sandeep Shetty is a Consultant Neonatologist at St Georges NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer at St George's, University of London.

Dr Katie Gallagher

Peter Dunn Lecture: Breaking bad news / difficult conversations with parents

Dr Katie Gallagher is Senior Research Fellow at the EGA Institute for Women’s Health University College London. She will be delivering this year's Peter Dunn Lecture.

Dr Hammad Khan

Live Workshop: Implementation of EPR systems in neonatal units – advantages and challenge

Dr Hammad Khan is Consultant Neonatologist and Medical Information Officer, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, UK.

Twitter: @drhammadkhan

Dr Katie Evans

Katie is an ST6 GRID Trainee who has recently completed a Clinical Research Fellow job at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Katie enjoys advocating for trainee involvement in neonatal research and quality improvement initiatives and is the Chair of the national NeoTRIPs network. 

Twitter: @KatieE1066

Professor Chris Gale

Chris is a Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London and Consultant Neonatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. His research focuses on the use of routinely recorded clinical data at scale to improve neonatal care - through large, pragmatic randomised trials, observational studies and population surveillance. He led population surveillance of the neonatal impact of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK.

Karen Williamson

Karen commenced in post as Parent and Family Engagement Lead for the Yorkshire and Humber ODN in August 2021.  She has a wealth of experience in Parent and Family Engagement and service improvement. She has been involved in neonatal service improvement since 2008 following her own lived experience of the birth of her daughter at 30+6 weeks in 2007. She held the position of Chair for the Greater Manchester Parent Advisory group in 2012. 

Karen worked for Bliss from 2013 until 2019 during which time she established a volunteer network across the Yorkshire and Humber Region, supported the implementation of FiCare and supported neonatal units across Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West with the Bliss Baby Charter. In her current role as Parent and Family Engagement Lead Karen is working closely with the Neonatal Care Coordinators to further embed Family Integrated Care, support units to meaningfully engage with a diverse group of parents and to ensure that all parents have a voice and are able to co-produce neonatal services with neonatal staff across the region.