Ana Alarcón Allén

I am a neonatologist with a particular interest in the developing brain. I specialised in neonatology  at the Hospital La Paz de Madrid and completed my training in the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, where I later started to work as a Pediatrician-Neonatologist. In 2013 I went to England to work as a Consultant Neonatologist in the University of Oxford Hospital. I returned to the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital in 2018. I remain academically linked to the University of Oxford through a Clinical Research Fellowship. My particular area of interest is Neonatal Neurology. My research work is primarily based on perinatal cerebral damage secondary to infection/inflammation or of hypoxic-ischaemic origin.

Training

• PhD in Medicine. Universitat de Barcelona, Department of Pediatrics, 2011.
• I have been a full member of the Spanish Society of Neonatology since 2005.
• Specialist doctor in Pediatrics and specific areas. Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid, 2003.
• Degree in Medicine and Surgery, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, 1998.

International experience

• I have been collaborating with the Hospital of Jundiaí (Brazil) and its Faculty of Medicine in a project on congenital infection by the Zika virus since 2018.
• I have been collaborating with the University Medical Center Utrecht (Holland) in a project on congenital cytomegalovirus since 2017.
• Consultant in Neonatal Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust, 2013–2017.
• Volunteer in a research project with the Mabessaneh Hospital, Sierra Leone, from May to July 2006.

Scientific activity

• Principal investigator in the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital for the NEOVANC clinical trial (Fundación Penta, funded through the EU Framework Programme) from 2018 to the present.
• ZIKAction collaborator (Fundación Penta, funded through Horizon 2020), 2018 to the present.
• Co-investigator in the ALBINO clinical trial (funded through Horizon 2020), 2018 to the present.
• Co-investigator in the HIER project (University of Oxford, funded through the NIHR) since 2017.
• Co-investigator of the “Sensory processing in newborns” project (University of Oxford, funded through the Wellcome Trust) since 2017.
• Principal investigator in Oxford for the REACT clinical trial (funded through the NIHR), 2016–2017.

View publications on PubMed.

Teaching

• Teacher in the nationwide course (United Kingdom) entitled: “NeoNate, neonatal neurology”, organised by the British Society of Pediatric Neurology since 2016.
• Co-organiser of the “Eur.UsBrain, European newborn brain ultrasound expert training”, accredited by the European Society of Neonatology since 2016.
• Co-director of the nationwide course (United Kingdom) “Thames Valley & Wessex neonatal cranial ultrasound course”, accredited by the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health since 2015.
• Collaborator in the Neonatal Neurology (NeNe) Foundation, helping newborns with neurological problems. Teacher on several attendance-based courses since 2015.
• Teacher on the Master’s course in Neonatology, SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, Universitat de Barcelona since 2012.