Prof Neil Marlow
UCL Professor of Neonatal Medicine
Neil Marlow is Professor of Neonatal Medicine at University College London and current Chair of the NHS England Neonatal Critical Care Clinical Reference Group. He took up this appointment following 11 years as Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Nottingham and 7 years as Senior Lecturer in Bristol. He is an Honorary Consultant in the University College Hospital Neonatal Service. His major academic interests have been in long-term outcomes following prematurity and he is the Director of the MRC-funded EPICure studies (www.epicure.ac.uk). He runs a series of local studies into brain and cognitive development following very preterm birth and is a co-investigator on a range of mainly UK based cohort and randomised studies. Neil has been President of the British Association for Perinatal Medicine, Director of the UCL Institute for Women’s Health, President of the European Society for Paediatric Research and Chair of two European Academy of Paediatric Societies Meetings. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and is an Honorary Life Friend of Bliss, the UK-based charity for premature babies.
GIFT-Surg focus
Neil’s role in the project is mainly in defining the efficacy and acceptability of fetal surgery. We anticipate that early testing and adoption of several technical innovations into clinical practice will be achieved during the lifetime of the project, but as yet it is not possible to define which arm will reach this stage. When new innovations are developed it is important to develop clear methods to define outcome and to consider if the innovation brings benefits to the patient and the families that look after them. Using his expertise developed over many years in neonatal outcome studies, Neil will develop condition-specific functional outcomes for the fetus, the baby and the mother including qualititative long term outcomes, after the innovative fetal surgeries have been applied. He will work with the PPI group to consider which are the best outcomes to measure. He will also help to develop ways to economically model the added value of the novel technologies.
