If you or your child were born prematurely, you might have heard about long-term health outcomes. One area that researchers around the world are focusing on is lung health. That's where PELICAN comes in.
PELICAN stands for Prematurity's Effects on the Lungs in Children and Adults Network. It was launched by the European Respiratory Society in 2020. PELICAN is a research collaboration bringing together clinicians, researchers and families from 33 countries around the world to pool data and answer some big questions about lung health for people born preterm. One of the Co-chairs Shannon Simpson is based at The Kids in Perth, Western Australia and our own Chairperson here at Tiny Sparks, Amber Bates is the lead Consumer on the Scientific Steering Committee.
The good news is that recent medical advances mean more babies born early are surviving than ever before. It’s time we move on from focusing in on survival and help these people thrive throughout life. Some people born preterm will face life long lung health challenges. Researchers now use the term Prematurity Associated Lung Disease (PLD) to describe the lung health challenges that people experience following preterm birth. PELICAN's mission is to understand these challenges better and improve lifelong lung health for all people born prematurely.
PELICAN is building a global research network and data repository to help researchers understand how preterm birth affects lung health across a lifetime. They're collecting information from children and adults born prematurely, looking at lung function, respiratory health, and how different treatments and life experiences, especially those in the NICU and early life, affect lung outcomes. What makes PELICAN special is that it's creating a shared language and standardised measures for research. This means scientists from different countries can compare findings and work together more effectively to answer important questions about lung health after preterm birth.
If your child was born prematurely, PELICAN's research could offer valuable insights into what to expect, how to support their lung health, and what treatments or interventions work best. By connecting families with researchers and clinicians globally, PELICAN helps create better outcomes for children born too soon.
PELICAN has recently launched an Instagram page @pelican.network to help them directly connect with community members about important information. To share resources, stories and learnings and help you unpack the science in an easy to understand way.
