Overview

As a neonatologist who cares for small and sick newborns, I am interested in improving the short-term and long-term outcomes of patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I am part of a Canadian team that is testing a new method (EPIC) for improving outcomes by implementing what has been proven and learning from NICUs with good outcomes. I am coordinating the team that is implementing this method to reduce infections. After these newborns go home, I study the well-being and outcome of those who have survived extreme prematurity, severe illness in the newborn period and other factors that put children at high risk of long term developmental disabilities. In addition, I am interested in finding the best way to ensure that these survivors have access to the effective treatments, health and educational services they may require.

Publications

Size and Location of Preterm Brain Injury and Associations With Neurodevelopmental Outcomes
Neurology
Thiviya Selvanathan and Ting Guo and Steven Ufkes and Vann Chau and Helen Branson and Anne Synnes and Linh G. Ly and Edmond N. Kelly and Ruth E. Grunau and Steven P. Miller
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000209264
04/2024

Parent-reported health outcomes at preschool age in preterm survivors: a population-based cohort study
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Sydney MacDonald and Alexandra Stratas and Anne R Synnes and Navjot Sandila and Marsha Campbell-Yeo and Prakesh S Shah and Satvinder Ghotra
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326136
12/2023

Fragility and resilience: parental and family perspectives on the impacts of extreme prematurity
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Annie Janvier and Claude Julie Bourque and Rebecca Pearce and Emilie Thivierge and Laurie-Anne Duquette and Magdalena Jaworski and Keith J Barrington and Anne R Synnes and Paige Church and Thuy Mai Luu
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-325011
11/2023

Parental perspectives of outcomes following very preterm birth: Seeing the good, not just the bad
Acta Paediatrica
Audrey-Anne Milette and Lindsay L. Richter and Claude Julie Bourque and Annie Janvier and Rebecca Pearce and Paige Terrien Church and Anne Synnes and Thuy Mai Luu
DOI: 10.1111/apa.16616
03/2023

Parental perspective on important health outcomes of extremely preterm infants
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Magdalena Jaworski and Annie Janvier and Claude Julie Bourque and Thuy-An Mai-Vo and Rebecca Pearce and Anne R Synnes and Thuy Mai Luu
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-322711
09/2022

Ventricular Volume in Infants Born Very Preterm: Relationship with Brain Maturation and Neurodevelopment at Age 4.5 Years
The Journal of Pediatrics
Min Sheng and Ting Guo and Connor Mabbott and Vann Chau and Anne Synnes and Linda S. de Vries and Ruth E. Grunau and Steven P. Miller
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.05.003
09/2022

Mortality and significant neurosensory impairment in preterm infants: an international comparison
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Marie Chevallier and Thierry Debillon and Brian A Darlow and Anne R Synnes and Véronique Pierrat and Elizabeth Hurrion and Junmin Yang and Anne Ego and Pierre Yves Ancel and Kei Lui and Prakeshkumar S Shah and Thuy Mai Luu
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-322288
05/2022

Lower Maternal Chronic Physiological Stress and Better Child Behavior at 18 Months: Follow-Up of a Cluster Randomized Trial of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Family Integrated Care
The Journal of Pediatrics
Mia A. Mclean and Olivia C. Scoten and Wayne Yu and Xiang Y. Ye and Julie Petrie and Paige T. Church and Amuchou S. Soraisham and Lucia S. Mirea and Joanne Weinberg and Anne R. Synnes and Karel O'Brien and Ruth E. Grunau
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.12.055
04/2022

Head circumference, total cerebral volume and neurodevelopment in preterm neonates
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Thiviya Selvanathan and Ting Guo and Eddie Kwan and Vann Chau and Rollin Brant and Anne R Synnes and Ruth E Grunau and Steven P Miller
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-321397
03/2022

Parent-reported health status of preterm survivors in a Canadian cohort
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Satvinder Ghotra and David Feeny and Ronald Barr and Junmin Yang and Saroj Saigal and Michael Vincer and Jehier Afifi and Prakeshkumar S Shah and Shoo K Lee and Anne R Synnes
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-321635
01/2022

Family integrated care: very preterm neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 months
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Anne R Synnes and Julie Petrie and Ruth E Grunau and Paige Church and Edmond Kelly and Diane Moddemann and Xiang Ye and Shoo K Lee and Karel O'Brien
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-321055
01/2022

Sensory processing and cortisol at age 4 years: Procedural pain-related stress in children born very preterm
Developmental Psychobiology
Mia A. McLean and Nikoo Niknafs and Olivia C. Scoten and Cecil M. Y. Chau and Margot MacKay and Joanne Weinberg and Anne Synnes and Steven P. Miller and Ruth E. Grunau
DOI: 10.1002/dev.22079
07/2021

Neurodevelopmental outcomes of singleton large for gestational age infants
Journal of Perinatology
Deepika Rustogi and Anne Synnes and Belal Alshaikh and Shabih Hasan and Christine Drolet and Edith Masse and Prashanth Murthy and Prakesh S. Shah and Kamran Yusuf and Prakesh S. Shah and Marc Beltempo and Jaideep Kanungo and Joseph Ting and Ayman Abou Mehrem and Jennifer Toye and Khalid Aziz and Jaya Bodani and Lannae Strueby and Mary Seshia and Deepak Louis and Ruben Alvaro and Amit Mukerji and Orlando Da Silva and Sajit Augustine and Kyong-Soon Lee and Eugene Ng and Brigitte Lemyre and Thierry Daboval and Faiza Khurshid and Victoria Bizgu and Keith Barrington and Christine Drolet and Bruno Piedboeuf and Martine Claveau and Valerie Bertelle and Edith Masse and Roderick Canning and Hala Makary and Cecil Ojah and Luis Monterrosa and Julie Emberley and Jehier Afifi and Andrzej Kajetanowicz and Shoo K. Lee and Thevanisha Pillay and Anne Synnes and Leonora Hendson and Amber Reichert and Matthew Hicks and Cecilia de Cabo and Chukwuma Nwaesei and Linh Ly and Edmond Kelly and Karen Thomas and
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-021-01080-z
06/2021

Risk factors for re-hospitalization following neonatal discharge of extremely preterm infants in Canada
Paediatrics & Child Health
Zakariya Bambala Puthattayil and Thuy Mai Luu and Marc Beltempo and Shannon Cross and Thevanisha Pillay and Marilyn Ballantyne and Anne Synnes and Prakesh Shah and Thierry Daboval and Thevanisha Pillay and Anne Synnes and Leonora Hendson and Amber Reichert and Jaya Bodani and Sibasis Daspal and Diane Moddemann and Chukwuma Nwaesei and Thierry Daboval and Sarah McKnight and Kevin Coughlin and Linh Ly and Edmond Kelly and Saroj Saigal and Karen Thomas and Paige Church and Ermelinda Pelausa and M Khairy and Thuy Mai Luu and Charlotte Demers and Alyssa Morin, Dr. and Sylvie Bélanger and Roderick Canning and Luis Monterrosa and Hala Makary and Jehier Afifi and Phil Murphy and Charles Janeway
DOI: 10.1093/pch/pxz143
03/2021

Neonatal follow-up programs in Canada: A national survey
Paediatrics & Child Health
Fawaz Albaghli and Paige Church and Marilyn Ballantyne and Alberta Girardi and Anne Synnes
DOI: 10.1093/pch/pxz159
02/2021

Mechanical Ventilation Duration, Brainstem Development, and Neurodevelopment in Children Born Preterm: A Prospective Cohort Study
The Journal of Pediatrics
Mireille Guillot and Ting Guo and Steven Ufkes and Juliane Schneider and Anne Synnes and Vann Chau and Ruth E. Grunau and Steven P. Miller
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.05.039
11/2020

Association between Transport Risk Index of Physiologic Stability in Extremely Premature Infants and Mortality or Neurodevelopmental Impairment at 18 to 24 Months
The Journal of Pediatrics
Beate Grass and Xiang Y. Ye and Edmond Kelly and Anne Synnes and Shoo Lee
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.05.019
09/2020

Antenatal magnesium sulphate and adverse neonatal outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS Medicine
Emily Shepherd and Rehana A. Salam and Deepak Manhas and Anne Synnes and Philippa Middleton and Maria Makrides and Caroline A. Crowther
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002988
12/2019

Maternal smoking and neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants
Journal of Perinatology
Krystyna Ediger and Shabih U. Hasan and Anne Synnes and Jyotsna Shah and Dianne Creighton and Tetsuya Isayama and Prakesh S. Shah and Abhay Lodha
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-019-0356-3
06/2019

Association of admission temperature and death or adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in extremely low-gestational age neonates
Journal of Perinatology
Joseph Y. Ting and Anne R. Synnes and Shoo K. Lee and Prakesh S. Shah
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-018-0099-6
07/2018

Early Procedural Pain Is Associated with Regionally-Specific Alterations in Thalamic Development in Preterm Neonates
The Journal of Neuroscience
Emma G. Duerden and Ruth E. Grunau and Ting Guo and Justin Foong and Alexander Pearson and Stephanie Au-Young and Raphael Lavoie and M. Mallar Chakravarty and Vann Chau and Anne Synnes and Steven P. Miller
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0867-17.2017
01/2018

Determinants of developmental outcomes in a very preterm Canadian cohort
Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
Anne Synnes and Thuy Mai Luu and Diane Moddemann and Paige Church and David Lee and Michael Vincer and Marilyn Ballantyne and Annette Majnemer and Dianne Creighton and Junmin Yang and Reginald Sauve and Saroj Saigal and Prakesh Shah and Shoo K Lee
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2016-311228
05/2017

Smaller Cerebellar Growth and Poorer Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants Exposed to Neonatal Morphine
The Journal of Pediatrics
Jill G. Zwicker and Steven P. Miller and Ruth E. Grunau and Vann Chau and Rollin Brant and Colin Studholme and Mengyuan Liu and Anne Synnes and Kenneth J. Poskitt and Mikaela L. Stiver and Emily W.Y. Tam
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.12.024
05/2016

Automatic segmentation of the hippocampus for preterm neonates from early-in-life to term-equivalent age
NeuroImage: Clinical
Ting Guo and Julie L. Winterburn and Jon Pipitone and Emma G. Duerden and Min Tae M. Park and Vann Chau and Kenneth J. Poskitt and Ruth E. Grunau and Anne Synnes and Steven P. Miller and M. Mallar Chakravarty
DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.07.019
2015

Research

Current projects
My research interests relate to improving the outcome of newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and into school age. I collaborate with the Canadian Neonatal Network, the Consortium for Health Intervention Learning and Development (CHILD) and Dr. Steven Miller.

I am the site investigator for a Canadian multicentre EPIC (Evidence based Practice Intervention and Change) NICU study which is testing the generalizability of EPIC. a new quality improvement methodology that incorporates evidence-based practices, tracking outcomes and quality improvement techniques. As site investigator for the CIHR team in Children’s Pain, we will be developing a Canadian pain database and evaluating whether EPIC can improve the assessment and management of pain in hospitalized children.

With the CHILD project, we have studied the survival and disabilities of extremely low birth weight children, extremely preterm children and those with severe intraventricular hemorrhages (bleed in the brain) in premature infants. We have used local databases to collect this information and are now exploring whether a provincial database linking the BC linked health database and the educational database can provide us with comprehensive information.

To better understand why some children develop disabilities, we are performing leading edge MRI studies of children born preterm, children with heart problems and children with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and will be comparing the MRI studies with the developmental outcome of these children at 1 ½ and 3 years of age.

Honours & Awards

Child & Youth Development Trajectories Research Unit, Michael Smith Foundation Research Unit Award - 2004

Canadian Neonatal Network, CIHR Knowledge Translation Award - 2004

Research Group Members

Amarpreet Chera, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lindsay Richter, Research Coordinator