About RHiNO

A multidisciplinary programme for respiratory health after preterm birth

Respiratory Health Outcomes in Neonates (RHiNO) brought together paediatric respiratory medicine, physiology, imaging, trials, epidemiology, statistics, nursing and parent involvement to understand how preterm birth affects the lungs from childhood towards adult life.

The RHiNO Study Our discoveries

Illustration representing multidisciplinary RHiNO respiratory research, including imaging, physiology, treatment and laboratory science.

How RHiNO was built

A collaboration across institutions and disciplines

RHiNO grew from the earlier RANOPs population programme and was developed as a collaboration between Cardiff, Bristol, Sheffield, Bangor/NWORTH and the University of South Wales, with parent representation embedded in the programme.

Cardiff University

Clinical leadership, cohort research, respiratory phenotyping, laboratory science and long-term programme development.

Cardiff & Vale UHB

Clinical respiratory expertise and delivery through the Children’s Hospital for Wales.

University of Bristol

Respiratory and epidemiological collaboration supporting interpretation of childhood outcomes.

University of Sheffield

Advanced hyperpolarised-gas lung MRI and specialist imaging expertise.

Bangor University / NWORTH

Trial management, data quality, monitoring and statistical infrastructure.

University of South Wales

Exercise and physiological collaboration within the wider RHiNO programme.

The original RHiNO team

Investigators and collaborators

The original RHiNO collaboration included the following investigators and contributors. For the production site, current titles and affiliations should be checked before publication while preserving the historical record of who established and delivered the study.

Professor Sailesh Kotecha

Cardiff University

Chief Investigator

Professor John Henderson

University of Bristol

Respiratory collaborator

Professor James Wild

University of Sheffield

Advanced lung MRI

Dr Mark Williams

University of South Wales

Exercise / physiology

Dr Julian Marchesi

Cardiff University

Scientific collaborator

Dr Iolo Doull

Cardiff & Vale UHB

Paediatric respiratory medicine

Dr Zoe Hoare

Bangor University

Trials / statistics

Kirstie Pye

Bangor University

Trial management

Natalie Grice

Parent representative

Parent and public involvement

Dr John Lowe

Cardiff University

Research collaborator

Dr Sarah Kotecha

Cardiff University

Research collaborator

Research delivery

RHiNO depended on multidisciplinary research teams

Clinical & cohort research

Recruitment, respiratory assessment, longitudinal follow-up and interpretation of childhood respiratory outcomes.

Research nursing

Participant contact, home visits, study procedures, trial delivery and support for children and families.

Trials & statistics

Randomisation, monitoring, data quality, statistical analysis and trial governance through NWORTH and collaborators.

Advanced phenotyping

Exercise testing, detailed respiratory mechanics, imaging and physiological characterisation beyond routine spirometry.

Mechanistic science

Metabolomics, molecular biology and other laboratory approaches aimed at understanding why PLD phenotypes differ.

Parents & participants

Parent representation informed the programme, while participating families made every subsequent discovery possible.

Study governance

Sponsorship, funding and ethical oversight

SponsorCardiff University

FunderMedical Research Council (MRC)

Trial managementNWORTH, Bangor University

Research ethicsSouth West–Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee

Ethics reference15/SW/0289

Trial registrationISRCTN14767962

The original participant information sheets also described how study data and samples were handled and how confidentiality was protected. Those documents remain available in the historical participant archive.

Participants & families

Illustration showing the journey from premature birth through lung development to later childhood.

Current scientific direction

From completed recruitment to life-course PLD research

RHiNO is now increasingly focused on how prematurity-associated lung disease phenotypes evolve through adolescence and adulthood, whether abnormalities are reversible, how environmental and biological mechanisms contribute, and which interventions might preserve lung-growth trajectories.

This shift—from describing symptoms to defining phenotype, mechanism, trajectory and treatment—is the reason RHiNO now functions as a scientific hub rather than simply a completed childhood study.

Explore our discoveries PLD & phenotypes

Contact & website information

Practical information for the redesigned site

The current RHiNO website still carries historic recruitment-era contact wording. Before the redesigned site goes live, the active contact route should be verified and the site should include modern Privacy and Accessibility pages.

RHiNO contact

The current live site lists the RHiNO Office at University Hospital of Wales and the historic RHiNO contact route.

View current contact page ↗

Privacy

A dedicated website privacy page should be kept separate from the historical research consent documentation.

Accessibility

The final WordPress site should include an accessibility statement and be tested against current WCAG expectations.

Our preterm lung research programme

Following respiratory health from birth to later life

Birth • neonatal care

AZTEC

Azithromycin Therapy for Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity

Visit AZTEC ↗

→

Discharge • infancy

BALLOON Trial

Preventing respiratory infections after discharge

Visit BALLOON ↗

→

Childhood • adolescence • beyond

RHiNO

Respiratory Health Outcomes in Neonates

RHiNO home →