Project Lead: Dr. KS Joseph

Dr. KS Joseph has expertise in perinatal epidemiology, infant prematurity and community health. He is an internationally recognized perinatal researcher and is the driving force behind the Fetal and Infant Health Study Group of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System. He contributed to The State of Perinatal Health in Canada: An Overview, a Health Canada publication that led to changes in policies and practices in the health system.

Project Overview

This project will look to generate an actuarial assessment of newborn outcomes that can be used for prognostication. In Year 2 of the MiCare timelines, short-term neonatal outcomes will be assessed using the MiCare database. In Year 3, a scoring system for short-term outcomes will be established and analyses will begin on long-term outcomes. Analyses will be completed in Years 4-5 and the scoring system will be disseminated to Canadian NICU's.

Objectives

1. To develop prevalence functions and scoring systems to predict at birth the probability of short and longer term outcomes (i.e. death/disability) in infants < 29 weeks GA

2. To develop prevalence functions and scoring systems for various points (day 7, day 14, day 28, day 42) so as to update prognosis for short and longer term outcomes (i.e. death/disability)