The Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) is very pleased to congratulate the recipient of the 2025 Women’s Health Research Institute Leveling Up: Women’s and Newborn Health Research Action Grant. This competition was funded thanks to the dedicated support of the BC Women’s Health Foundation.
This grant competition is intended to fund the next phase in the research discovery pipeline and provides support for a previously pilot-tested women’s and/or newborn’s health research project involving a) screening or diagnostic tools; or b) treatment interventions. These tools/interventions must have proof-of-concept pilot data and be ready to advance to the next stage of empirical testing, or a larger-scale trial, or scale-up, or implementation.
The WHRI funds one award at $100,000 for a two-year period.
Celebrating Sandesh Shivananda, 2025 Recipient
PROJECT TITLE:
Neonatal interventions to prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia (NIP-BPD)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Sandesh Shivananda, Associate Professor, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
CO-INVESTIGATORS:
Tapas Kulkarni, Julia Charlton, Emily Kieran, Souvik Mitra, Uthayakumaran Kanagaraj, Avram Shack, Jeffrey Bone, Marie Wright, Lindsay Richter, Tom Wiebe, Navi Janda, Kanekal Gautham and Stephanie Glegg
SUMMARY:
Babies born extremely early — before 29 weeks of pregnancy — are among the most delicate patients in the hospital. Nearly six in ten either die or develop a serious chronic lung condition called bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). BPD is the most common long-term complication in preterm infants, often leading to prolonged hospital stays, repeated admissions, and lifelong breathing and developmental difficulties. Because no single treatment can prevent BPD, a baby’s outcome depends on many small but critical care decisions about breathing support, medications, and timing of interventions. In busy neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), these decisions can vary widely between caregivers and hospitals, leading to inconsistent outcomes.
At BC Women’s Hospital, which cares for about 70 extremely preterm infants each year, our team developed the Neonatal Interventions to Prevent BPD (NIP-BPD) step-by-step care plan. This approach integrates proven clinical practices with structured teamwork and communication processes to ensure consistent, high-quality care.
In our pilot study, families and staff showed strong engagement, and the approach proved feasible, acceptable, and effective in improving teamwork and reducing early respiratory severity. The next step is to scale up NIP-BPD across the BC Women’s NICU over two years to determine whether it can lower rates of BPD or death while enhancing communication, family participation, staff confidence, and cost-effectiveness. Eventually, the team could expand this model to other NICUs across British Columbia and Canada to improve survival and long-term outcomes for preterm infants and their families.