Why is another EPICure Study Needed?
The way doctors and nurses look after very tiny babies has changed a lot since the original study started in 1995. We can see that more babies seem to be surviving now compared to then. We think it is important to document this properly and to see if the children born now have similar problems to those born over 10 years ago. As part of the new EPICure studies we will study all babies born in England at 26 weeks of gestation or less (14 or more weeks premature) during 2006. The new study will tell us how effective advances in Neonatal care have been. It will also tell us more about the lung development of very tiny babies. The professional approach of different baby units will also be considered. This will build on the knowledge gained through the hard work of the EPICure families and study group in the original study. The original EPICure studies told us that babies who are well in the hours shortly after birth often do better in the long term. The new EPICure studies will collect mor
