University Hospital
Würzburg
Universitätsklinikum Würzburg (University Hospital Würzburg, UKW) is a leading center for patient care, research, and medical education in Germany. Guided by its principle of “Science for Society,” UKW and the University of Würzburg’s medical faculty emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration to advance knowledge and improve health outcomes.
Within IMPROVE PRETERM, UKW contributes recognized expertise in developmental pediatrics, clinical trials, and epidemiology. The hospital coordinates key data sources, including the German Neonatal Network (GNN) and the PRIMAL study, both of which provide valuable long-term follow-up information on children born very preterm. These datasets – covering outcomes such as lung function, physical fitness, immune development, cognition, and behavior – will be connected to the RECAP Preterm platform to support large-scale European analyses.
Together with NTNU, UKW leads work to evaluate how different follow-up strategies and assessment methods across European cohorts influence developmental outcomes. The team also investigates how early childhood interventions, such as physiotherapy or early intervention programs, affect outcomes that matter most to families and individuals with lived experience.
Juliane Spiegler
Neuropediatrician and Professor of Neuro- and Social Pediatrics at the University Hospital Würzburg.
My research focuses on preterm birth, with special interest in their childhood growth, early intervention strategies after discharge, physical activity in childhood and adolescence and longitudinal follow-up with regard to mental and non-mental outcomes. I am working closely with the German Neonatal Network. I lead the evidence based guideline-development for follow-up of preterm infants until age 18 years in Germany from 2023-2026. In the EU funded MiniNO project I lead the analysis for long term mental and non-mental outcomes after neonatal iNO/sildenafil therapy.
Christoph Härtel
I am a neonatologist and academic clinician with a strong research interest in the immune development of extremely preterm infants and the factors shaping early-life health outcomes.
My research focuses on understanding how early environmental, microbial, and genetic influences affect immune maturation in preterm infants. I have been closely involved in multicenter studies within the German Neonatal Network (GNN) and co-led the PRIMAL trial, an interventional multicenter study investigating the potential of probiotic bacteria to modulate immune development at birth.
Marie Babel
I am a psychologist and psychotherapist in training, and since 2023, I have been part of Prof. Juliane Spiegler’s team at the University Hospital Würzburg, working on the evidence-based guidelines for the follow-up of preterm infants. My professional background lies in psychological assessment and diagnostics for children and adolescents, including intelligence and projective testing. Within the IMPROVE PRETERM project, I am specifically involved in the translation, implementation and application of the PARCA-CAT in Germany.
Fabian Kleindiek
I am a physician at the University Children’s Hospital Würzburg, and as part of my research work within the IMPROVE PRETERM project, I prepared data from the GNN network as well as from the PRIMAL project for upload to the Recap platform. I am excited that this will enable many researchers to access these highly valuable datasets and further advance research on preterm infants.