Noor de Sonnaville (1988) obtained a medical degree from the University of Amsterdam in 2015 (cum laude). During her studies she was actively involved in several research projects. One project studied the disease spectrum and natural course in attenuated patients with acid sphingomyelinase deficiency of which the results were published in Molecular Genetics and Metabolism. Another study focused on bronchopulmonary dysplasia and resulted in a publication in the Journal of Pediatrics. In addition, she joined a study into the association between the microbiome and obesity, of which the results were published in PLoS One. Her interests in Pediatrics started already before she commenced her medical training. After obtaining her MD, Noor was employed as assistant not in training at the pediatric department of the in Rotterdam Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam and the OLVG in Amsterdam.

De Sonnaville is currently appointed at the Emma Children’s Hospital Amsterdam UMC, where she works on a PhD. As part of her PhD she has contributed to the set-up of a newly developed outpatient clinic for children after admission at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The new outpatient clinic offers structured multidisciplinary follow-up by a multidisciplinary team of pediatric intensivists, psychologists, neuropsychologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, neurologists and rehabilitation physicians. The newly developed outpatient clinic is part of the Emma Children’s Hospital Amsterdam UMC Follow Me program, an ambitious program that aims to establish multidisciplinary follow-up programs for all tertiary care pediatric patients with the ambition to enhance clinical follow-up, support routine outcome monitoring, and fuel clinical multidisciplinary research to improve clinical care. More information on the Emma Children’s Hospital Amsterdam UMC Follow Me program can be found here: Amsterdam UMC Locatie AMC - Follow Me polikliniek Intensive Care Kinderen.

De Sonnaville’s current research is embedded in this follow-up program and focuses on the long-term outcomes of children after PICU admission, and in particular on pulmonary and neurocognitive as well as psychosocial outcomes. Currently, little is known on these crucial long-term outcomes. In one of her studies de Sonnaville identified that children with a history of PICU admission due to bronchiolitis requiring mechanical ventilation are at risk of long-term impairments in neurocognitive functioning and academic performance and reduced health-related quality of life. Sedatives, analgesics and anesthetics were not related to the magnitude of neurocognitive impairment. In addition, her current work tries to understand risk and protective factors for the long-term outcomes of children after PICU admission. Insight in these factors will contribute to further enhance treatments in the PICU and the associated  long-term outcomes.