Susanna Myrnerts Höök

Dr. Susanna Myrnerts Höök is a senior consultant in paediatrics at Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, and a postdoctoral researcher in the Global Child Health and the Sustainable Development Goals group at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet (KI). With over twelve years of research experience, her work has primarily focused on perinatal care, neonatal survival, and innovations in neonatal resuscitation and surfactant treatment via laryngeal mask airways, with projects conducted in Uganda, Vietnam, and Rwanda.

Since 2019, Dr. Myrnerts Höök has been involved in collaborative projects with Phu San Hospital, Vietnam, and currently serves as the coordinator for the project "Critical care with a focus on the perinatal period to scale up research, capacity building, and implementation at Phu San Hanoi Hospital, Vietnam (2025–2028)." This initiative emphasizes airway management and surfactant treatment, including a randomized trial investigating laryngeal mask airway use for surfactant administration in Vietnam.

Since 2023, she has also been a co-investigator in the "OPTIPRO" trial in Rwanda, a collaboration with the University of Gothenburg. Supported by the Swedish Research Council, this randomized trial compares probiotic treatment with a placebo in low-birth-weight infants, aiming to assess its impact on malnutrition and neonatal mortality.

Dr. Myrnerts Höök completed her PhD in May 2021 with a thesis titled "Supporting neonatal resuscitation in low-resource settings - innovations and new strategies." Her research explored strategies to optimize the management of non-breathing neonates immediately after birth, particularly in Uganda. The thesis emphasized the development and evaluation of tools such as a smartphone app for heart rate assessment and the use of laryngeal mask airways (LMA) for improved airway management during ventilatory support. These interventions were assessed for their alignment with international neonatal resuscitation guidelines and their impact on neonatal mortality and morbidity.

Her contributions to neonatal health have been recognized with the Publication of the Year 2020 award from the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen. She was joint first author of the article "A randomized trial of laryngeal mask airway in neonatal resuscitation, " published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2020.

Dr. Myrnerts Höök's research has advanced understanding and practices in neonatal global health, addressing critical gaps in care and innovation for vulnerable populations. 

Current Positions

• Postdoctoral Researcher in Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet
• Senior Consultant in Paediatric Critical Care, Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

Education and Certifications

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• University of Bergen, Norway (2016–May 2021)
• Supervisor: Professor Thorkild Tylleskär, affiliated with Karolinska Institutet
• Dissertation: "Supporting neonatal resuscitation in low-resource settings - innovations and new strategies"
• Certified Specialist in Paediatrics, 2015
• Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
• University of Gothenburg, The Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden (1996–2002)

Residency and Internship

• Paediatrics Residency
• Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden (2010–2015)
• General Medicine Residency
• S:t Erik Health Centre, Stockholm, Sweden (2005–2010)
• Internship
• Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden (2002–2005)
• Departments: Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Surgery, General Medicine, Psychiatry

Licensure

• Medical License, Sweden, 2002

Languages

• Swedish: Native
• English, Spanish, French: Fluent in both spoken and written communication

Ongoing and Recent Research Projects

• 2023 – ongoing: Co-investigator collaborating with the University of Gothenburg in the "OPTIPRO" trial in Rwanda, a randomized study on probiotic treatment compared to placebo in low birth weight children to investigate its effects on malnutrition and neonatal mortality, supported by the Swedish Research Council.
• 2019 – ongoing: Co-investigator in the NEO-SPIRIT Trial (NEOnatal SuPRaglottic vIetnam Trial), assessing a supraglottic device versus endotracheal intubation in neonatal resuscitation in Vietnam – a randomized Phase III clinical trial.
• 2013 – ongoing: Development of NeoTap, a free application for heart rate registration during neonatal resuscitation. Includes a manikin study at Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, and an observational study at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.
• 2016 – 2019: NeoSupra trial, a multi-center, Phase III, open-label, randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of i-gel® supraglottic airway in neonatal resuscitation, focusing on reducing early neonatal mortality and morbidity compared to standard face-mask ventilation in low-income countries. Involved in the coordination team, steering committee, and data management team.
• 2016 – May 2021: PhD candidate at Bergen University, Norway, with published papers in Acta Paediatrica, BMJ Paediatrics Open, and The New England Journal of Medicine. The following articles are part of the thesis:
  • Accurate and fast neonatal heart rate assessment with a smartphone-based application – a manikin study
  • Smartphone app for neonatal heart rate assessment – an observational study
  • A randomized trial of laryngeal mask airway in neonatal resuscitation

Previous Research Experience

• 1999 – 2000: Research on "Arthritis among children of the Shipibo people" in Pucallpa, Peru, under the supervision of Professor Anders Fasth, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• 2014–Present: Teacher for medical students at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2016–Present: Master Trainer for Helping Babies Breathe neonatal resuscitation training in Uganda
• 2015: Participated in organizing training in Essential Newborn Care for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctors