ProfessorWilliam Tarnow-Mordi

“Your baby is very ill” – these are four words no parent ever wants to hear, and Professor William Tarnow-Mordi is working to help. He conducts international clinical trials to improve healthy outcomes in preterm or high-risk babies. Dr Tarnow-Mordi is Director of Neonatal and Perinatal Trials at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre (CTC) and Foundation Director of the WINNER Centre for Newborn Research at the University of Sydney. Professor Tarnow-Mordi completed his medical training at the University of Cambridge, UK, followed by specialist training in Paediatrics and Neonatal Medicine. He migrated to Australia in 1999 to commence an appointment as inaugural Professor of Neonatal Medicine, University of Sydney and Director of Neonatology, Westmead Hospital, where he led NSW’s busiest Neonatal department until 2010. Trials in extremely premature babies are challenging, and Dr Tarnow-Mordi and team are working to form global partnerships with clinicians, with the aim of finding cost-effective treatments that will reduce infant mortality and illness. The CTC’s Neonatal Research program focuses on areas of need, e.g. neonatal infection, oxygen therapy and simple cost-effective measures to reduce health problems and improve outcomes for high-risk newborn infants. His work has helped to improve survival rates in very preterm infants, influence clinical practice and achieve major health care cost savings worldwide by identifying ineffective treatments. Professor Tarnow-Mordi serves on the Steering Group of NSW Health’s Better Treatment for Kids Network and is co-chair of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Working Group.