Prof Helen Liley

Professor Helen Liley is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of Mater Research and is co-chair of the Critical Care of At Risk Newborns Research Group. She holds a clinical appointment as a Senior Staff Specialist in Neonatology at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital.

Helen’s clinical research aims at improving the outcomes of infants who need resuscitation at birth and subsequent neonatal intensive care. She is author of over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 10 chapters in major textbooks; and serves lead as chief investigator and site investigator for several multicentre clinical trials. Helen is the Chief Investigator of the Australia and New Zealand-wide, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded, PAEAN trial, which aims to reduce the severity of brain injury in babies who have suffered too little oxygen or blood supply to the brain during birth. She also collaborates with investigators at The University of Queensland to study the interaction of breast milk and infant saliva, and studies methods to improve neonatal resuscitation through teamwork and better monitoring.

Helen began her research career as a fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California and worked as consultant neonatologist at the Boston Children’s Hospital. She relocated to New Zealand as clinical director of the Neonatal Unit as Christchurch Women’s Hospital in 1995, then to the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in 1999. She has received numerous awards including a Julius H. Comroe Fellowship, an American Academy of Paediatrics’ Young Investigator award, and is currently on the Betty McGrath Research Fellowship Scheme at Mater for her PAEAN trial.

Helen is a member of the Neonatal Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, the Australian Resuscitation Council and its Executive, the Policy Committee of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand and the National Blood Authority Patient Blood Management Guidelines Expert Working Group. In these roles, she has been a lead author on four major evidence-based guidelines in the fields of neonatal resuscitation and paediatric and neonatal patient blood management. She is a member of the Queensland Health Maternity and Neonatal Guidelines Steering Committee, and the Mater Clinical Ethics Committee.

“I was lucky enough to grow up in a family that placed a very high value on the potential of medicine to help people, and on science to enlighten and continuously improve prevention and treatment. My father, a pioneer in fetal treatment, always regarded his patients, both mother and baby, as his equals, and his mentors and his team as key to the things he achieved. These and the wonderful local, national and international collaborators that I have been privileged to learn from and work with, inspire me to learn more about how to help newborn babies and their families.”