North Carolina Children’s Hospital (Lead Site)

UNC School of Medicine

We look forward to speaking with you about ECHO phase 2 and future ELGAN Studies!

Michael OShea

Principal Investigator: Michael O’Shea MD
Division of Neonatology – Department of Pediatrics
CB #7596 UNC Hospitals
4th Floor / Main Hospital / Suite 4051
101 Manning Drive
Chapel Hill NC 27599-7596
984-974-5063
moshea52@unc.edu

Mike has been a principal investigator of the ELGAN Study since 2001 – for 15 years at Wake Forest University and at UNC since 2015.  His clinical interests are neonatology and long-term developmental and health monitoring of children born extremely preterm; his research interest is the discovery of strategies to improve the long-term outcome of this same group of children.

“My interest in finding solutions to neurodevelopmental impairments among individuals born extremely preterm (EP) began in 1984, when I cared for a baby born at 26 weeks of gestation who developed cerebral white matter injury and subsequent cerebral palsy. Thirty-six years later, the scientific community knows a great deal more about the relationship between extreme prematurity and neurodevelopmental disorders. The ECHO Study provides a novel and exciting pathway to the discovery of strategies to continued improvement in outcomes for individuals born EP. Not only will novel risk factors, such as air pollution and metals that contaminate drinking water, be examined, but novel molecular mechanisms will be examined for the role that they play in linking early life exposures to health and development later in life. Finally, ECHO provides an opportunity to work with an extremely diverse group of individuals with an astounding array of skills, knowledge, and perspectives.”

Study Coordinator

Janice Wereszczak

Janice Wereszczak
Division of Neonatology – Department of Pediatrics
CB #7596 UNC Hospitals
4th Floor / Main Hospital / Suite 4051
101 Manning Drive
Chapel Hill NC 27599-7596
984-974-7869 
jwereszc@med.unc.edu

Janice Wereszczak has been the ELGAN Study Coordinator at UNC since 2002. As a pediatric nurse practitioner in the UNC Newborn Critical Care Center, she cared for these same ELGAN subjects as babies, followed their progress in the UNC Special Infant Care Clinic until age two, and then was able to see them at age ten for ELGAN 2 and again for ELGAN ECHO.

“It has been the highlight of my career to witness the growth and development of these vulnerable babies and to see what amazing adults they are becoming”.

Check out the North Carolina Children’s Hospital website for directions and more information.

ELGAN