Prof Jon Dorling is the Clinical Chair at Child Health Outcomes Research at Leeds (CHORAL). CHORAL is a multi-million-pound children’s research programme led by the University of Leeds (UoL) in partnership with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and Leeds Hospitals Charity.
Over the next five years, the CHORAL programme will focus on key areas where research can improve outcomes for children and young people, with a particular focus on severe childhood illnesses including cancer, life-threatening diseases and mental health conditions.
Briefly describe your role
I am a Professor of Child Health and Neonatology and I also work as a Consultant Neonatologist in the Leeds Centre for Newborn Care. I was the first new Professor appointed within the CHORAL team, joining an established team aiming to improve the health and wellbeing of children through research.
What’s your favourite part of the role?
There are many enjoyable aspects of the job but working with and supporting less experienced researchers and helping them gain experience, grant funding, and completing research projects that can impact child health are my favourite part of the job.
What are you most proud of during your time at the Trust?
I joined in June so it is still early days but I am most proud of introducing 4 new studies to the Centre for Newborn Care. These studies are looking at cooling babies with mild oxygen difficulties around birth, studying the the blood flow into the gut of preterm and cardiac babies, and introducing the use of a new pain relief medicine which we hope can replace morphine in ventilated babies.
How did you become involved in R&I?
When I was a resident (junior) doctor I attended a research course on evidence based child health which covered how to use research evidence in every day clinical practice. Through this I became aware of how little evidence there was for many of the common practices and treatment used in the care of newborn babies. I therefore became involved in (and lead) randomised clinical trials which aim to provide evidence for such care by studying the effects of simple treatments or care pathways. There are still many questions to study and answer.