Scientific Committee
Alexandra Benachi, MD, PhD
Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist
Professor
Antoine Béclère Hospital, Paris Saclay Hospitals
Paris Saclay University
Clamart, France
Fanny Cauvet
Family Representative
President of the French Family Association APEHDia
Paris, France
Jan Deprest, MD, PhD
Fetal Surgeon
Professor
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, KU Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
King’s College Hospital & Institute for Women’s Health, University College London Hospital
London, UK
Matthew Harting, MD, MS, FAAP, FACS
Pediatric Surgeon
Associate Professor
Medical Director, Pediatric ECLS
Medical Director, Pediatric Surgery Telehealth
Department of Pediatric Surgery
University of Texas, McGovern Medical School
Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center
The Comprehensive Center for CDH Care
Houston, Texas, USA
Matthew T. Harting is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at McGovern Medical School and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas, USA. He is passionate about improving the lives of critically ill neonatal and pediatric patients, particularly those with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). As the medical director of extracorporeal life support and a leader within The Comprehensive Center for CDH Care, he works with a team advancing clinical care and conducting novel investigation at the basic, translational, and clinical levels, all focused on CDH. As the director of the CDH Study Group, he works to help centers from around the world improve how they care for, and conduct collaborative clinical research to improve the lives of, CDH patients and their families.
Hanneke IJsselstijn, MD PhD
Pediatrician
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatric Surgery
Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Dr IJssemstijn is a pediatrician and research coordinator of the long-term follow-up team for congenital anatomical anomalies in Rotterdam. As associate professor she has specific research interest in long-term multidisciplinary outcomes of CDH patients from the neonatal period up till adolescence and adulthood. Her research lines include transition of care from childhood to adulthood and intervention studies (e.g. neurocognitive training or cardiopulmonary exercise program).
Florian Kipfmueller, MD, MHBA
Neonatologist
Associate Professor
University Children’s Hospital
Department of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine
Bonn, Germany
Florian Kipfmueller is a neonatologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, working at the University Children’s Hospital in Bonn, Germany. His clinical expertise lies in the care of severely sick neonates with congenital malformations (especially CDH), the hemodynamic assessment of term and preterm infants, the use of ECMO in neonatal and pediatric patients, and the use of novel therapeutic agents in cardiorespiratory failure.
His main CDH-related research focus is the echocardiographic assessment of cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, the use of blood-based biomarkers for outcome prediction, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to optimize cardiopulmonary interactions, and recognition and prevention of ECMO-related complications.
Carmen Mesas Burgos, MD, PhD, FEBPS
Pediatric Surgeon, General Surgeon
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatric Surgery, Karolinska University Hospital
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health
Karolinksa Institutet
Stockholm, Sweden
Carmen Mesas Burgos is a Consultant Pediatric Surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital and Associate Professor in Pediatric Surgery at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Her areas of clinical and research interest are congenital anomalies, particularly CDH, and ECMO. She is the medical director of the CDH program at Karolinska, and an active member of ERNICA for both CDH and abdominal wall defects.
Neil Patel, MD
Neonatologist
Associate Professor
Department of Neonatology
Royal Hospital for Children
Glasgow, UK
Natalie Rintoul, MD
Neonatologist
Professor
Children’s Hospital
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Natalie Rintoul is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending neonatologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She is Medical Co-Director of the Special Delivery Unit Neonatal Service, Medical Director of the Neonatal Surgical Service in the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit, and Director of the Neonatal ECMO Program. She is a fetal consultant and neonatologist with the perinatal palliative care program.
Dr. Rintoul’s research interests include neonatal surgical and cardiac diagnoses, including pulmonary hypoplasia and pulmonary hypertension in congenital diaphragmatic hernia and management of myelomeningocele, perioperative care of the surgical neonate and ECMO.
Dr. Rintoul is an active clinical and research member of the Pulmonary Hypoplasia program. She is one of the lead investigators for the “Delivery Room of the Future” Frontier Program to establish and incorporate physiologic data for babies with congenital anomalies into a “Critical Knowledge” digital system to improve delivery room resuscitation and outcomes.
She also serves on the national PediECMO steering committee and the international ELSO committee.
Laurent Storme, MD, PhD
Pediatrician
Professor
Department of Neonatology
University Hospital
Lille, France
Katrin Zahn, MD
Pediatric Surgeon
Department of Reconstructive Urology
Center for Children
University Medicine Hospital
Mannheim, Germany