Advisory Group

Robin H. Steinhorn, MD is the President of Children’s Specialists of San Diego. She also holds a position as Vice Dean for Children’s Clinical Services at UC San Diego School of Medicine as well as Senior Vice President and Executive Director for Rady Children’s Specialists of San Diego.

Dr. Steinhorn received her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis and completed pediatric and neonatal perinatal medicine training at the University of Minnesota. Prior to arriving at Rady Children’s, she served as Chief of the Division of Neonatology at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chair of Pediatrics and Pediatrician in Chief at the University of California Davis, and most recently as Senior Vice President at Children’s National Hospital for hospital-based specialties.

Dr. Steinhorn’s clinical and academic interests have largely focused on the development of the lung vasculature of the newborn. She helped develop the classification systems for pediatric pulmonary hypertension and neonatal chronic lung disease. Her clinical research has addressed other topics such as harmonization of electronic health records for clinical research, telemedicine support of neonatal care in small rural hospitals, and the microbiome of the neonate. She has mentored numerous neonatologists and clinician scientists over the last 20 years, and several have developed their own funded laboratories and become division heads and department chairs.

Dr. Steinhorn advocates for children, the highest quality of neonatal and pediatric care, and for long-term career satisfaction for physicians at Rady Children’s and on a national and global level. She is a past President of the American Pediatric Society and served as member of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Pediatrics. She is an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American Thoracic Society. She has received multiple honors, including an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, and the Jonas Salk Health Leadership Award for Research by the March of Dimes Illinois Chapter. She is especially passionate about mentoring faculty and supporting the growth and career development of young academic pediatricians.

Prof Arvind Sehgal is a Neonatologist at Monash Children's Hospital and Professor of Paediatrics at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He has been the Head of Cardiovascular Research at Monash Children’s Hospital for the past 13 years. He completed his PhD in 2016 while working as a full time intensivist and is currently enrolled for a Doctorate degree in Perinatal Haemodynamics.

In 2019, Prof Sehgal's research was awarded the ANZNN Emerge Respiratory Research Award and he was awarded the Professional Excellence in Research Award by the University for the year 2022.
Arvind has been a member of the Awards Selection Committee at American Academy of Pediatrics and has conducted and chaired Invited Haemodynamic Sessions at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting held in the US.

Prof Sehgal's current research focuses on cardiovascular adaptations in infants with severe bronchopulmonary and those with fetal growth restriction. He has more than 140 publications in international journals.

Dr. Souvik Mitra is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia and a Clinician-Scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada. He completed his fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University and his PhD in Epidemiology and Applied Health Research from Dalhousie University.

His primary research interests revolve around improving patient and family-important clinical outcomes of extremely preterm babies. His current CIHR-funded research projects include a pan-Canadian study on the comparative effectiveness of NSAIDs for treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in extremely preterm infants and a multicenter RCT on selective early treatment of the PDA in extremely low gestational age infants.

He serves as an Associate Editor for the Cochrane Neonatal Group and co-chairs the Academic Committee of the Neonatal Hemodynamic Research Centre and the Evidence Based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ) Hemodynamic Group of the Canadian Neonatal Network. He is the chair-elect of the Fetus and Newborn Committee of the Canadian Pediatric Society and also a member of several national grant peer-review committees such as CIHR.

Dr. Philip Levy is an Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a staff neonatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. His patient-oriented and translational research initiatives focus on cardiac mechanics in congenital and acquired cardiopulmonary diseases in the neonatal and pediatric population. His professional activities span the realm of clinical service, research and teaching, all devoted to discovering, implementing and teaching evidence-based clinical care of seriously ill newborns.

Dr. Levy’s work is part of a larger international collaborative that was established to examine emerging measures of cardiac function and pulmonary hemodynamics in large preterm birth cohorts to define physiological and pathological patterns of postnatal cardiac adaptation. Philip and his collaborators have introduced novel approaches for non-invasive quantitative cardiac focused imaging that yield sensitive and specific methods of assessment and management of neonatal and paediatric cardiopulmonary diseases. The major objective of his research is to extend the capacity for ultrasound as a tool to enhance the understanding of newborn cardio-pulmonary disease and explore its contribution in quantitative cardiac phenotyping.

Jeffrey R. Fineman, MD is Professor, Division Chief of Critical Care Medicine, Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Service, and Investigator of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Fineman leads an NIH funded translational research program studying pediatric pulmonary vascular diseases, with particular focus on congenital heart disease. He is devoted to mentoring fellows and junior faculty. As such, he serves as the Principal Investigator of two NIH T32 research training programs: Research Training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Multidisciplinary Research Training in Pediatric Pulmonary Vascular Disease. In addition, he serves as the Program Director of the UCSF Pediatric Departmental K12 program and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the NIH K12 in Pediatric Critical Care.

Dr. Fineman is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including an Established Investigator and Mentoring Award from the American Heart Association, the Maureen Andrew SPR mentoring award, and the UCSF Lifetime Achievement Mentoring Award.

Professor Dempsey is a UCC graduate, he completed postgraduate training in Paediatrics in Ireland and later a Neonatal Fellowship at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal. He is the inaugural Horgan Chair in Neonatology at University College Cork, a consultant Neonatologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital and is clinical lead at the INFANT Research Centre.

He is a member of a number of international organisations including the European Society of Paediatric Research, European Neonatal Echo Working group, European NIRS Working group and Pharmacology section of the European Society for Paediatric Research.

He has been awarded a number of Higher Degrees, including a doctorate for work on Hypotension in the preterm infant, an MSc in Health Care Ethics and Law and an MA in Teaching and Learning, focused on Simulation based procedural care. He has > 200 publications in newborn care.

Dr. Audrey Hébert is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology at Laval University and staff neonatologist at CHU de Québec. She is the program director of the neonatal hemodynamics/TNE program at CHU de Quebec. She completed formal training in Neonatal Hemodynamics/TNE at BC Women’s Hospital and at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Dr. Hébert is developing her research interest in the field of chronic pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and training program development in TNE.

Rolf M.F. Berger, MD, PhD, University Medical Center Groningen, Beatrix Children’s Hospital, Groningen, The Netherlands
Rolf M.F. Berger, MD, PhD, is Professor of Paediatrics and Paediatric Cardiology at the Centre for Congenital Heart Diseases, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He heads the Division of Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology at the Beatrix Children’s Hospital/University Medical Centre Groningen, which serves as the national referral centre for children with pulmonary hypertension in The Netherlands.

Professor Berger’s research interests are focused on pulmonary hypertension in neonates and children: risk factors, diagnosis, treatment and outcome. His basic research is focused on cardiac and vascular adaptations in experimental models of flow-associated pulmonary hypertension and abnormal loading conditions of the right ventricle.

Willem-Pieter de Boode (born in Arnhem in 1966) earned his doctoral degree with honours from VU University Amsterdam. He specialized in Paediatrics at Radboudumc and Sint Joseph Hospital, now known as Maxima Medical Center, Veldhoven. Additionally, he focused on Neonatology at Radboudumc and became a registered Neonatologist in 1999. In 2010, he successfully completed his PhD at Radboud University, conducting research on advanced techniques for investigating and monitoring the neonatal cardiovascular system.

Dr. de Boode currently serves as a paediatrician-neonatologist and a staff member at the Neonatology department in Radboudumc Amalia Children's Hospital, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His primary areas of expertise include neonatal haemodynamics, cardiovascular physiology, neonatologist-performed echocardiography (NPE), advanced haemodynamic monitoring, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), neonatal shock, and Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS).

He has held several roles within the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR), serving as the secretary of the ESPR Section "Circulation, Oxygen Transport and Haematology" and as chairman of the ESPR special interest group "Neonatologist Performed Echocardiography (NPE)." In this capacity, he has been instrumental in formulating European clinical, technical, and training guidelines for the use of echocardiography in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs).

Dr. de Boode is also the project leader of the BeNeDuctus Trial, an international multi-center, randomized non-inferiority trial that explores early treatment versus expectative management of patent ductus arteriosus in preterm infants. This ground-breaking research is funded by The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw).

Since October 1, 2019, Willem-Pieter de Boode holds the position of Professor of Neonatology at Radboud University/Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc). As of September 2023, he assumed the role of President of the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR).

Outside his professional life, Willem de Boode enjoys a fulfilling personal life. He is happily married and the proud father of four children. His hobbies encompass music, boat building, and theatre.

Samir Gupta is Professor of Neonatology at Durham University, UK and Fellow at National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford University, United Kingdom. He is Division chief of Neonatology, a Quaternary care neonatal unit at Sidra Medicine (Children’s hospital), Qatar.

He is a Fellow of Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health and Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He is member of European steering group of the Neonatologist performed echocardiography (NPE). He is founder and chair of the Neonatologist with interest in Cardiology & Hemodynamics in the UK and has now successfully established Qatar NPE training program at Sidra Medicine in Doha, Qatar.
He is a member of several scientific organizations, including the European Society for Pediatric Research (ESPR) and Society for Pediatric Research (USA). He has authored over 150 articles in indexed peer reviewed journals and books. He has been invited guest editor for high impact journals.

He is Chief investigator of Baby-OSCAR trial on patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/baby-oscar). He established 1st global Annual international neonatal cardiology & hemodynamics conference in UK in 2010, which is successfully running to date (www.neonatalcardiology.co.uk). He is lead for Asia & Middle East for the NHRC (https://neonatalhemodynamics.com).

He has established Neonatal hemodynamics program at Sidra Medicine with a team of clinicians, that has significantly improved neonatal outcomes in surgical, complex and sick newborn infants. He works collaboratively with Pediatric cardiology and fetal medicine division to improve the care of complex cardiac patients admitted to the NICU. Currently, he is working to set up the ‘Cardiac ICU on NICU’’ and expanding the NPE training program internationally. He also advises on various international forums on cardio-respiratory disorders and management and is international expert in this field.

Professor Kluckow is a Senior Staff Specialist in Neonatology at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia and a Professor of Neonatology at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research has centered around the physiology and transitional circulation of both term and preterm infants. He has particular interests in the patent ductus arteriosus, management of hypotension and acute pulmonary hypertension, umbilical cord clamping time/resuscitation and point of care ultrasound (POCUS) training and accreditation.

He is Chair of the Australian/New Zealand training committee for POCUS. He is a regular invited international speaker and has published many articles related to POCUS, neonatal hemodynamics and the phenotyping of pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Satyan Lakshminrusimha (Dr. Satyan) is the Nancy and Dennis Marks Chair of Pediatrics and the Pediatrician-in-Chief of the UC Davis Children’s hospital. His primary focus is how fetal lungs change at birth to breathe air and disorders of transition, specifically asphyxia and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). He is funded by the NIH to evaluate optimal oxygenation in neonatal lung injury and PPHN. He is the PI of the multicenter trial evaluating milrinone in congenital diaphragmatic hernia. He is also an editor of the textbook, “Essentials of Neonatal Ventilation” by Elsevier. He serves as the co-chair of the UC Davis Health clinical funds-flow committee. He is a past member of the American Academy of Pediatrics – Neonatal Resuscitation Program steering committee. He is a member of the Subboard of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine of the American Board of Pediatrics. He is the Chair of the AMSPDC (Association of Medical Schools – Pediatric Department Chairs: Clinical Care Committee strives to share best practices and approaches to new challenges in an effort to promote access to high quality care for all children.

He was awarded the mentor of the year award by the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research (ESPR) in 2017 and will be receiving the AAP Education award in 2023. Satyan enjoys drawing medical illustrations and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and 500 illustrations in pediatric and neonatology textbooks, journal articles and apps.

Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway. Consultant in Paediatric Cardiology and Neonatology at Akershus University Hospital, Norway.

Main research interests relate to assessment of heart function by ultrasound in neonates and children, including effects from perinatal asphyxia, prematurity, infections, and intrauterine growth restriction on subsequent cardiovascular health.

Council member of the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR). Section Secretary of the “Circulation, Oxygen Transport and Haematology” section in the ESPR. Head of the steering committee for the Special Interest Group for Neonatologist performed Echocardiograph within ESPR.

Associated Editor in Acta Paediatrica.