ProfessorWilliam Tarnow-Mordi

Professor Tarnow-Mordi leads and collaborates on large-scale, international multicentre randomised trials and cohort studies to improve outcomes for high-risk newborn infants. To date he has been involved in trials that have included >30,000 infants in >200 neonatal units worldwide. He is Principal Investigator of the BOOST II trial of 1,135 very preterm infants randomised to high vs low oxygen saturation targets during oxygen treatment, assessing death or major disability at 18-24 months after birth. He also has brought together Principal Investigators of four other similar international trials (the NeOProM Collaboration), who will conduct individual patient data analysis in 4,959 very preterm infants, to help resolve the long-standing uncertainty about appropriate oxygen saturations in infants of < 28 weeks gestation.

Professor Tarnow-Mordi is Principal Investigator of the Lactoferrin Evaluation in Anaemia in Pregnancy (LEAP-1) trial, which addresses the question of whether iron deficiency anaemia of pregnancy should be treated with lactoferrin. The study will compare the effects of supplementation with standard iron sulphate vs oral bovine lactoferrin in iron deficiency anaemia in pregnancy, on fetal growth (birth weight for gestational age) and neonatal iron status at birth. Additionally, he co-chairs the Australian Placental Transfusion Study, which is assessing whether a 60-second delay in clamping and cutting the cord can improve blood flow to the brain and gut and reduce death and disability in babies born more than 10 weeks early.