{"id":53,"date":"2026-08-27T13:14:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.rhino-health.org\/about\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:14:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:14:43","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/?page_id=53","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About AZTEC<\/div>\n

A national neonatal research collaboration<\/h1>\n

AZTEC was created to answer an important clinical question in very preterm babies and to build a scientific platform linking clinical outcomes, microbiology, inflammation and longer-term follow-up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Illustration<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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The AZTEC story<\/div>\n

From rationale to published evidence<\/h2>\n
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2019<\/b>Trial opens<\/strong>Recruitment begins across UK neonatal units.<\/span><\/div>\n
2020\u201321<\/b>COVID disruption<\/strong>Trial delivery continues through national pauses and pressures.<\/span><\/div>\n
2022<\/b>799 babies recruited<\/strong>Recruitment completes above target.<\/span><\/div>\n
2024<\/b>Main RCT published<\/strong>Primary clinical findings reported.<\/span><\/div>\n
2025\u201326<\/b>Programme expands<\/strong>Follow-up, HTA and AMR outputs continue.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Leadership & collaboration<\/div>\n

Who delivered AZTEC?<\/h2>\n

The trial was led by Professor Sailesh Kotecha from the Department of Child Health in the School of Medicine, and coordinated by the Centre for Trials Research, both based at Cardiff University. The other co-applicants included Professor Janet Berrington from Newcastle, Marie Hubbard from Leicester Royal Infirmary, Professor Mark Turner from Liverpool University, Professor Nigel Klein from UCL, and Professor Julian Marchesi from Imperial College London.<\/p>\n

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Chief Investigator<\/h3>\n

Professor Sailesh Kotecha<\/strong>
Cardiff University<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

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Trial coordination<\/h3>\n

Centre for Trials Research<\/strong>
Cardiff University<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

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National network<\/h3>\n

28 neonatal intensive care units and approximately 77 step-down units contributed to recruitment, treatment and follow-up.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Funding & governance<\/div>\n

NIHR-funded and independently regulated<\/h2>\n

AZTEC was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (HTA Project 16\/111\/106), registered as ISRCTN11650227 and conducted under the relevant UK research ethics, HRA and MHRA approvals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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A wider programme<\/div>\n

AZTEC \u2192 BALLOON \u2192 RHiNO<\/h2>\n

Together these programmes address respiratory health across the life course: neonatal intervention, protection after discharge, and later childhood lung health after preterm birth.<\/p>\n

Visit BALLOON \u2197<\/a>Visit RHiNO \u2197<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About AZTEC A national neonatal research collaboration AZTEC was created to answer an important clinical question in very preterm babies and to build a scientific platform linking clinical outcomes, microbiology, inflammation and longer-term follow-up. The AZTEC story From rationale to published evidence 2019Trial opensRecruitment begins across UK neonatal units. 2020\u201321COVID disruptionTrial delivery continues through national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhino-health.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}