Project Overview

At birth, some babies suffer from a condition called birth asphyxia, where their brain and organs do not receive enough oxygen or blood, leading to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). This life-threatening condition is responsible for 23% of babies’ deaths worldwide and often results in cerebral palsy and difficulties with learning and everyday functioning. The only current treatment is therapeutic cooling, where the baby’s body is cooled to 33.5°C for 72 hours to prevent brain damage. Unfortunately, this approach does not always work, and many babies still suffer from brain injuries. Currently, no treatment exists to repair brain damage caused by HIE. Research has shown that some supportive treatments given to these babies during their first critical days can either worsen or improve brain damage, and these treatments vary between hospitals.

We propose creating a national, collaborative, and multidisciplinary platform focused on improving the care and long-term outcomes of babies with HIE. Hope for HIE, an international parent organization with >400 Canadian families, has partnered with our team of neonatal brain health experts across Canada to design this platform. Our goal is to address all aspects of HIE to improve the future of affected infants. The platform’s priorities include improving early treatments by collecting extensive data and comparing practices across hospitals, developing and testing new therapies to repair brain damage, empowering parents through their journey, and training the next generation of doctors and scientists to care for these vulnerable babies.

Principal Investigator

Pia Wintermark , The Montreal Children’s Hospital; The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre

Team Members

Jehier Afifi, Dalhousie University

Gabriel Altit, McGill University

Isabel Fortier, McGill University

Mireille Guillot, Université Laval

Audrey Hebert, Université Laval

Matt Hicks, University of Alberta Hospital

Majeeda Kamaluddeen, University of Calgary

Anie Lapointe, Université de Montréal

Lara Leijser, University of Calgary

Elka Miller, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)

Souvik Mitra, University of British Columbia

Khorshid Mohammad, University of Calgary

Betsy Pilon, Hope for HIE

Emmanouil Rampakakis, McGill University

Georg Schmolzer, Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH)

Sandesh Shivananda, University of British Columbia

Ganesh Srinivasan, University of Manitoba

Sophie Tremblay, Université de Montréal

Partners and Donors

Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation; Fondation Courtois