Introduction

Neonatology is a fascinating branch of healthcare where clinical care meets developmental biology. Neonatal professionals have made enormous strides in their ability to help increasing numbers of babies born at ever decreasing gestational ages to survive. The incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis is evidence of this success, and research and improvements in care for conditions that are characterised by high morbidity and mortality are proportionally more important as more babies born extremely prematurely survive.

Despite over five decades of research, the overall mortality and treatment options have remained largely unchanged, and NEC is still a disease for which there is no known cure. There are many gaps in knowledge, conflicting evidence on its multifactorial risk factors and agreement is needed on an evidence-based case definition. However, as speakers at SIGNEC conferences have shown, there have been intensive research efforts in the past decade, many of which are costly and demanding. SIGNEC aims to encourage the neonatal community to build on these advances and to speed up progression towards earlier diagnosis, specific preventive and treatment strategies and improved outcomes.

The purpose of this section of our website is to showcase some presentations from SIGNEC conferences and to provide links to related papers. They are organised in these 4 sections below. Summaries and presentations from SIGNEC 2017 can be found here.