Grant: Planning Grants - PA: Integrated health services, Developmental Origins of hlth

Our goal is to understand the lung and heart health of babies that were born too early (extremely premature infants). This is important because 10% of children are born prematurely and more of these little babies are surviving every day. These infants can have many problems with their health. Some may not be obvious when the babies are little but these health concerns can become major issues as the baby becomes a young child and an adult. There are promising therapies that may be able to improve the future long term health of premature infants. But, it is impossible to know if they are helping if we do not have a good understanding of what happens to these babies over time, in the first place. Earlier long term studies of premature infants were done in a time when babies were not as small (or premature) and the medical care they received was different. We are proposing to start with a two day meeting of experts from across Canada. This meeting will bring together health care professionals who come from different specialties (neonatology, respirology, exercise physiology and cardiology). We will first discuss the best way to look after former premature infants over time, after they leave hospital and then we will create a framework for a large national study of former premature infants in Canada today. By doing this, we will be able to know what the specific heart, lung and exercise problems are that former premature babies face as they grow up, and also the best ways to manage these problems. In the end we hope to improve the long-term health of premature babies and maximize their chances of living long and productive lives.