The power of PANDA

A landmark partnership led by the U of A and supported by WCHRI unites Canadian hospitals to streamline neonatal clinical trials and advance care.

The University of Alberta is leading a new, national partnership to coordinate more neonatal clinical trials in Canada and improve outcomes for premature babies and their families.

Known as PANDA, the Platform for Trials in Neonatal Care launched in 2024 under the leadership of U of A neonatologist Georg Schmӧlzer and with key support from WCHRI.

Thirteen of Canada’s 32 hospitals with comprehensive neonatal intensive care units have already joined the network, which allows researchers to collaborate on planning, funding and co-ordinating sites for randomized clinical trials. A steering committee ensures different sites don’t compete for the same funding.

Globally, complications from preterm birth are now the leading cause of death in children under five. In Canada, about 1,600 extremely premature babies are born at 28 weeks or less each year. Almost all of those born at 28 or 29 weeks survive, says Schmӧlzerr, director of the Centre for the Studies of Asphyxia and Resuscitation, a leading neonatal research centre. But at 22 weeks, less than 40 per cent make it, often with long-term medical problems. The toll on them and their families is enormous, as are the costs to the health-care system.

“In neonatology, we don’t have answers for 80 per cent of the questions. We have no data. So there’s plenty of work to do,” he says.

Early intervention and clinical trials are key to improving the lives of preterm babies and their families, he says, drawing a clear line to WCHRI’s strategic priorities. These are areas identified by the institute where it can distinguish itself and draw on the strengths of its partnerships — in this case, with the Stollery Children’s Health Foundation — to drive forward high-impact research to benefit children and families in Alberta and beyond.

rking with others, across disciplines, enhances the strength and impact of our research.

Schmӧlzer hopes PANDA will increase not only the number but also the diversity of babies involved in Canadian clinical trials, so researchers get better, more reliable data to improve treatments. Participation requires parental consent and many parents from racial and ethnic minority groups are reluctant, he says, largely because of historical mistrust of the medical and research communities. Education on this issue is one of the network’s goals.

Schmӧlzer has led and participated in more than 20 clinical trials since joining the U of A in 2012. While the number of neonatal researchers in Canada who want to do clinical trials is increasing, he says, there are still administrative and funding barriers, especially for early-career scientists.

He is leading PANDA’s first randomized clinical trial with $2.5 million in CIHR funding. The multi-site study will examine the optimal oxygen concentration for extremely premature babies. He plans to follow up with a similar study of babies born at 29 to 34 weeks.

Schmӧlzer also hopes to extend PANDA’s research umbrella to include near- or full-term babies and, eventually, pregnant people and those who have recently given birth.

“When we get fully up and running, I think we could create quite a lot of evidence on simple, important questions to improve the outcomes for moms as well as for babies.”

PANDA is also collaborating with the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation and Hope for HIE.

https://ar.wchri.org/the-power-of-panda/