There are structural and functional modifications that occur to the neonatal heart immediately after birth. While a number of studies recently have assessed cardiac function in the newborn, there is a dearth of data on diastolic function in the neonatal period during transition and into infancy. The objective of this study is to assess diastolic function in a large cohort of infants to provide normative reference values and to assess the influence of predefined maternal and infant characteristics.

This is a single-centre observational study of babies born at 35 weeks of gestation and above, involving echocardiography in the first 2 DOL and longitudinal follow-up of these infants up to 18 months of age. The echocardiographic measurements to assess diastolic function used in this study include conventional echo measures, novel echo measures using tissue Doppler imaging and deformation measures using 2D speckle tracking echocardiography.

The protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Cork Teaching Hospitals. The findings from this study will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and during scientific conferences.

NCT06200519.

In Germany, influenza vaccination rates in at-risk groups are well below the 75% coverage recommended by the WHO. Although it has been shown that general practitioners (GPs) can play a key role in increasing their patients’ willingness to be vaccinated, this potential does not seem to have been fully used. This study aims to uncover factors that motivate GPs to vaccinate their patients against influenza, investigate the role of financial incentives in achieving higher vaccination rates and determine how the daily practice of GPs can be made more vaccination friendly.

A mixed-methods approach is employed to reach the research aims. Literature reviews will be conducted to identify factors that motivate GPs to vaccinate against influenza and to identify studies in which preferences are elicited. This is followed by semistructured interviews with GPs (n=6–10). The scoping reviews and interviews serve as a basis for the development of a quantitative survey directed at GPs which includes a discrete choice experiment. The quantitative survey will be sent to a total of 3760 GPs.

The study will be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. A positive vote has been received from the Ethics Committee of the Medical Association North Rhine (2024259). Study participants will only be included in the study after being given informed consent. Manuscripts will be prepared for the scoping review on motivating factors and after completion of the quantitative survey, which will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Interim results and final results of the project will be presented at conferences.