Rate My Professor Karen Simmer

Emeritus Professor Karen Simmer AO is the inaugural Professor of Newborn Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Western Australia. She directed the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, and the Newborn Emergency Transport Service from 2001 to 2020. Professor Simmer established and directed the first Human Milk Bank in Australia at King Edward Memorial Hospital in 2006. She co-directed the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for Preterm Infants and the UWA Centre for Neonatal Research and Education. From 2009 to 2012, she served as Chair of the UWA Academic Board. She holds honorary positions as Professor at the University of Sydney Clinical Trials Centre and Research Fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute. Her career includes Associate Professor at Flinders University School of Medicine (1998), Senior Lecturer and Senior Staff Specialist in Neonatology at Flinders Medical Centre (1987-1998), Lecturer in Neonatology at the University of London (1986), Senior Registrar in Paediatrics at St Thomas’ Hospital London (1982-1985), Senior Registrar in Neonatology at St George’s Hospital London (1982), Resident and Registrar at Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children Sydney (1980-1982), and Intern at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney (1979-1980).

Professor Simmer holds an MBBS with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney (1979), PhD from the University of London (1986), FRACP (1987), MRCP(UK) (1984), FRCPCH(UK) (1997), Graduate Diploma in Health Service Management from Edith Cowan University (2003), and Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education from Flinders University (1998). Her research specializations include neonatology, perinatal and infant nutrition with emphasis on enteral and parenteral nutrition for preterm infants, human milk banks and breastfeeding, long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and child development, neonatal infection, innate immunity, late-onset sepsis, and strategies to improve growth and development of preterm infants. She has over 200 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 50 and 8,536 citations. Key publications comprise "Peritoneal drainage versus laparotomy as initial treatment for surgical necrotising enterocolitis or spontaneous intestinal perforation in preterm very low birth weight infants" (2025), "Early versus late parenteral nutrition in term and late preterm infants: A randomised controlled trial" (2024), "High-Dose Docosahexaenoic Acid in Newborns Born at Less Than 29 Weeks' Gestation and Behavior at Age 5 Years: Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial" (2024), "Current parenteral nutrition practice and clinical outcomes of term and late preterm infants: A retrospective study" (2023), and "Neonatal Docosahexaenoic Acid in Preterm Infants and Intelligence at 5 Years" (2022). She has supervised more than 20 PhD students to completion. Awards include Officer of the Order of Australia (2015) for service to medicine in neonatal paediatrics and nutrition, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2017). Her leadership has resulted in excellent clinical outcomes for newborn care in Western Australia and international recognition for the team.