The Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS is participating in a project to boost maternal and child research

Research on pregnant women, children and babies represents a major challenge for science, since the safety requirements and study criteria are particularly strict. This often becomes an obstacle to obtaining new results that are truly based on scientific evidence and that allow advances to be made and solutions to be offered that improve clinical practice in these population groups.

Although these cooperation networks have been in existence for some years, this situation could take a significant leap forward thanks to the renewal and innovation that this new network will bring in a framework agreement signed by 18 Spanish entities as part of the Maternal and Child Health and Development Network (SAMID) of the Health Outcomes-Oriented Cooperative Research Networks (RICORS), coordinated by Dr. Elisa Llurba, principal investigator of the Perinatal and Women’s Medicine Group of the Research Institute at the Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau, director of the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Service at the same hospital and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

This RICORS-SAMID maternal and child consortium, created in 2008 and renewed in 2021 with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Health’s Carlos III Health Institute, is made up of a total of 20 research groups and 27 associated clinical groups from different Spanish research institutes and health centres. This means the participation of over 300 researchers, including doctors specializing in neonatology/paediatrics and obstetrics, primary care paediatricians, biologists, anthropologists, perinatal mental health specialists, midwives, nurses, primary care and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurses, nutritionists, educators, graphic designers, physical education professionals, among others. They join forces to promote a comprehensive and collaborative plan that encompasses hospitals and primary healthcare centres to improve the health of women, mothers and babies.

With this new framework agreement, the centres that form part of the RICORS-SAMID network will share research objectives and projects, as well as clinical data, images and samples, which will make it possible to generate the largest information bank in Spain. This will facilitate large-scale clinical trials, innovation-based studies, as well as big data and artificial intelligence, and will contribute to leadership in this field at European level.

According to Dr. Llurba, “the agreement signed within the framework of the RICOR-SAMID Network is a decisive step towards promoting research through collaborative work in the area of maternal and child health. This will also make it possible to attract talent and access competitive public and private funding”.

The coordinator of the RICORS-SAMID Network explains that, with this agreement, "We have achieved a legal framework that not only aims to facilitate research between the different groups, but also aims to become an instrument for announcing advances, so that the users themselves and society in general can play a more active role in the process. To this end, an open mailbox has been set up where citizens can explain their needs and get involved in the research process through a process of co-creation and idea incubation”.

Dr. Óscar García-Algar, head of the Neonatology Service at the Hospital Clínic-Maternitat and researcher of the IDIBAPS Fetal and Perinatal Medicine group is the principal investigator of the work package, ‘Perinatal and paediatric environmental health: identification, outcomes and prevention of prenatal and postnatal exposure to substances of abuse’.

Projects with impact

An example of the projects being developed in the framework of the RICORS-SAMID Network is a study assessing neurodevelopment in neonates affected by congenital heart disease. Samples from both mothers and neonates are being analysed, in addition to prenatal MRI and ultrasound images, as well as data from follow-ups during the first years of life. The aim is to find neonatal and postnatal predictors associated with neurological development and quality of life in these children.

In addition, other projects are underway that are studying, for example, prognostic and diagnostic markers of pre-eclampsia and prematurity; intrauterine growth restriction and its long-term consequences; the effects of environmental pollution and prenatal exposure to substances of abuse on maternal and child health; early reproductive losses and their impact on mental health; renal involvement in mothers with pre-eclampsia; how to improve the diagnosis of early gestational diabetes during the first trimester of pregnancy and its effects on infant neurodevelopment; nutrition and its effects on childhood obesity; biomarkers of neonatal circulatory failure; the treatment of bacterial sepsis in neonates; the resuscitation of premature infants; the treatment of the complications of neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy; hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury; diabetes, and the experience of families and patients, as well as their needs and expectations. The network is also developing projects on health education, the promotion of healthy habits at all ages, the prevention of sudden death and the after-effects of cardiorespiratory arrest, through training actions aimed at professionals and citizens, as well as research into clinical and ethical aspects of paediatric palliative care.

The following is a list of the hospitals and research institutes that form part of the framework agreement:

Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau

Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (IMIB) – Fundación para la Formación e Investigación Sanitarias de la Región de Murcia (FFIS)

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe – Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Universitario La Fe de la Comunidad Valenciana

Instituto de Investigación Hospital 12 de Octubre – Fundación Investigación Biomédica Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre

Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD) – Fundació Privada per a la Recerca i la Docència Sant Joan de Déu

Instituto Biocruces Bizkaia – Asociación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Biocruces Bizkaia

Grup de Recerca AFIN – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – UAB

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario La Paz (IdiPAZ) – Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario La Paz

Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS) – Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón – Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Gregorio Marañón

Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ibs.GRANADA) – Fundación Pública Andaluza para la Investigación Biosanitaria de Andalucía Oriental – Alejandro Otero

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón – Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón

Institut de Recerca Sanitària Hospital Clínic San Carlos – Fundació per a la Investigació Biomèdica de l’Hospital Clínic San Carlos

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Valdecilla (IDIVAL) – Fundación Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela – Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela

Fundació Puigvert

Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias – Fundación para la Investigación y la Innovación Biosanitaria del Principado de Asturias