The University Hospital of Würzburg (UKW) plays a central role not only in patient care but also in research and education. Under the guiding principle “Science for Society,” the UKW and the university with its medical faculty emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration.
In collaboration with the German Neonatal Network (GNN) and the PRIMAL study, the UKW is interested, for example, in the long-term follow-up of babies born very prematurely. This includes many aspects such as lung function, fitness, development of the immune system, cognition and behaviour. The data from both studies will be connected to the RECAP platform for premature infant cohorts.
As part of IMPROVE PRETERM project, the UKW together with NTNU will analyse how the follow-up strategies of the various institutions or differences in the follow-up methods in the participating European cohorts influence the outcome parameters. In a second step, it will be analysed how interventions such as physiotherapy or early intervention programmes in early childhood affect meaningful outcomes defined by people with lived experience.