
Dr Ela Chakkarapani
M.B.,B.S., F.R.C.P.C.H., MD
Expertise
Developing interventions for babies with perinatal brain injuries. Assessing the impact of newborn brain injury on brain development at childhood using MRI and clinical assessments. Expertise: translational,trials,cohort
Current positions
Associate Professor in Neonatal Neuroscience and Director of Centre for Academic Child Health
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Contact
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Biography
Dr Ela Chakkarapani completed his undergraduate Medicine course in Chennai, India and specialist training in Paediatrics and Neonatology in the UK. Looking after families of babies with brain injury inspired him to work towards improving the outcomes for those babies and their families.
To achieve his mission, he gained MD in Neonatal Neuroprotection at the University of Bristol under the leadership of Prof M Thoresen. He travelled to Canada and pursued post-doctorate training at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver under the leadership of Dr K Poskitt and Prof S Miller, which enhanced his neuroimaging and neonatal neurology expertise. He currently works as a clinical academic with 50:50 NHS clinical and UoB research and teaching commitments. He is a consultant neonatologist at the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, St Michael's Hospital, Bristol with special interests in neonatal neurology, neuroprotection, brain and neurocognitive development and improving the outcomes of families of babies with brain injury.
He is the research lead for the regional neonatal intensive care unit, elemental lead for the Care of the Newborn for year 4 medical students and committee member in Neonatal Society.
Research interests
My research is centred within the world-leading neonatal neuroscience centre in the Bristol Medical school. It is focused on translational health research developing brain-protective treatments for perinatal hypoxic brain injury from preclinical studies, subsequently investigating the treatments in clinical trials followed by evaluating the impact of the interventions on the long-term outcomes using developmental assessments and neuroimaging. I am also interested in exploring the impact of antenatal and neonatal viral (SARS-CoV-2)infections on brain development.
Projects and supervisions
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/06/2024Association of antenatal or neonatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure with developmental and respiratory outcomes, and healthcare usage in early childhood
EClinicalMedicine
Cooling and physiology during parent cuddling infants with neonatal encephalopathy in usual care
Acta Paediatrica
Embedding the ‘CoolCuddle’ intervention for infants undergoing therapeutic hypothermia for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy in NICU: an evaluation using normalisation process theory
BMJ Open
Mental health of parents with infants in NICU receiving cooling therapy for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy
Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology
Resting-state functional connectivity in children cooled for neonatal encephalopathy
Brain Communications
Teaching
As the lead for the care of the newborn (CON) module since 2018, I have inspired the interest of year four medical students towards Neonatology subspecialty resulting in the formation of a neonatal society within the University, an increased number of students undertaking the “student selected component”, “elective placements”, “intercalated research projects”. I engaged with CREATE level 2 experienced route and was awarded the fellowship by the higher education authority within 6 months. Achieving CREATE strengthened my leadership and enhanced my teaching aligning with the pedagogic principles. I have influenced students through my lectures, bedside teachings and seminars. I coordinate lecture days and liaise with neonatal leads in the academies to provide a consistent learning experience in CON. I have enabled 4th year medical students to assign importance to Neonatology by developing and conducting innovative neonatal OSCE stations in their summative assessment. I lead the development and coordination of the implementation of MB21 curriculum for "care of the newborn" element. With MB21, student's placement time in the speciality has been reduced by 55%. To enhance the student learning experience, I successfully completed the "Technology-enhanced learning module" through the Teaching and Learning for Health Professionals programme. I successfully developed the clinical case for discussion and e-learning packages in collaboration with technology-enhanced learning to deliver the curriculum.
I deliver lecture for iBSc students and international online Masters education programme.