Children's Perioperative Lab (ChiPLab) - Department of Anaesthesia

We are a team of Anaesthetists - caring for children both during operations and in many other places in the hospital. Our research group works in several diverse areas of paediatric medicine including brain blood flow monitoring and other ways of monitoring patients during and after surgery, pre-hospital trauma management, malignant hyperthermia, and the application of virtual and augmented reality in perioperative and periprocedural care.

We support the training of medical students, registrars and fellows in research activities and assist other departments in multidisciplinary research activities. We have collaborative projects with many other national and international research groups, and aim to support the growing community of paediatric anaesthesia and perioperative medicine researchers worldwide.

For further information, please contact A/Prof Justin Skowno

Current projects

Current research projects include basic science, clinical trials and collaborative research projects:

• T-Rex- Neurodevelopmental outcome after sevoflurane versus dexmedetomidine/remifentanil anaesthesia in infancy: a randomised controlled trial (Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and multinational consortium)
• General anaesthesia in early life: effect on child cognitive and development outcomes (Menzies Centre, University of Sydney)
• Multicentre isoelectric EEG study (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and multi-national collaborative)
• 3D Printed Airways for Paediatric Anaesthesia – collaboration with Monash University
• Cyanotic congenital heart disease- the role of nitrogen species in adaptation to hypoxaemia
• Perioperative Immersive Experiences: The PIE Study
• Children’s Co-Creation of Virtual and Augmented Reality Experiences for Peri procedural Care
• Changes in cerebral mitochondrial oxygenation during paediatric and adult cardiac surgery (University College London, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane collaboration)
• Multiple smaller research projects and audits 
• Malignant hyperthermia – diagnosis and research

The research team

	Associate Professor Justin Skowno Research Group Leader, Senior Staff Specialist & Conjoint Associate Professor, University of Sydney Justin's research interests include: Non-invasive optical monitoring of cerebral and vascular physiology Effects of routinely used general anaesthetics on neurodevelopment in children Physiological data acquisition and processing in high acuity environments Nitric oxide physiology in congenital heart disease and cardiopulmonary bypass. Cardiac output and perfusion monitoring in children Please visit Justin's University of Sydney profile page for more information.
	Dr Jonathan de Lima, Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Sydney Jonathan's research explores pain developmental biology and he has a continuing interest in acute pain management, paediatric cardiac anaesthesia and nitric oxide physiology in congenital heart disease
	Dr Andrew Weatherall, Co-Head of the Department of Anaesthesia, Clinical Lecturer Andrew's research Interests include: Prehospital applications of non-invasive monitoring Virtual and augmented Reality in perioperative and periprocedural care Applications of 3D printing technologies to paediatric research and education.

	Ms Dorothy Tse, Research Assistant Dorothy handles recruitment for our clinical studies, and manages a diverse array of tasks within our group. She has specific interests in pain medicine and opiate pharmacology.
	Ms Sophia Yao, Research Assistant Sophia’s primary role is in the Virtual and augmented Reality in perioperative and periprocedural care projects, and our most recent team recruit.

Malignant Hyperthermia Group

	Dr Margaret Perry Margaret is an expert in the genetics of MH, and collaborates nationally with other researchers.
	Dr Gail Wong Gail is the clinical leader of the Malignant Hyperthermia Group.