The 2023-2025 Norman Beischer Clinical Research Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Clare Whitehead to help improve outcomes for babies born. With the Fellowship’s $600,000 funding, Dr Clare Whitehead will lead the PLATIPUS trial, a world-first innovative trial investigating multiple questions about how best to care for mothers at risk of preterm birth, and their babies after birth.
Dr Whitehead leads the Platform for Adaptive Trials in Perinatal Units (PLATIPUS) which is using an innovative trial design to simultaneously answer questions about care in pregnancy and for babies in the neonatal unit. The Norman Beischer Clinical Research Fellowship complements this by ensuring PLATIPUS includes the questions and outcomes that are most important to families as well as doctors and researchers.
So often, pregnant women and their families are not given the opportunity to tell us what matters most to them. This Fellowship will put them at the centre – informing us what they want to know, what matters most for themselves and their babies, and how they want us to involve them in clinical trials.”
“Being awarded this Fellowship is an amazing opportunity to transform research to improve outcomes for preterm babies, and to ensure Australia is leading the world in this type of research.”