University of Iowa Children's Hospital has long played a leading role in pushing the boundaries of better care for premature and critically ill newborn babies.

Now that role will be broadened and enhanced thanks to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

The institute recently added the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at University of Iowa Children's Hospital to a network of 16 leading research centers that jointly investigate the safety and effectiveness of care provided to premature and critically ill newborns.

The selection includes a five-year, $1.37 million award.

Edward Bell, MD, said the network focuses on questions that take a large number of patients enrolled in a study to answer. “The most important new therapies are evaluated in multi-center trials,” he explained.

--Andrea Schreiber