Welcome to The Victorian Infant Collaborative Study
The Victorian Infant Collaborative Study (VICS) is a long term study of prematurely born infants throughout their childhood and into adulthood. VICS is a collaboration between the Royal Women’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital for Women, Monash Medical Centre, the Royal Children’s Hospital, and Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. The paediatricians, psychologists, nurses and research staff are all dedicated to improving the lives of extremely premature babies.
For over four decades VICS has been working towards better understanding the extent of long-term health problems that occur in the tiniest babies (those of birth weight less than 1000g) and most premature babies (those born more than 12 weeks too soon, or before 28 weeks of pregnancy).
We want to know your stories, your experiences. It is from you we learn. If you are happy to share your story, please send it to us to share with others embarking on a similar journey.
Recently on the Blog
VICS Recognises World Prematurity Day 2023
17 November marks World Prematurity Day, an annual event to raise awareness for the one in ten babies worldwide who will be born too early. Each year, 15 million babies worldwide are born preterm. Sadly, one million of these babies will not survive. Of those who...
PremmieEd: New VICS 2016/17 Online Parent Survey
The PremmieEd project aims to understand parent’s perceptions and experiences of their child’s schooling and development. We also want to know whether parent’s views of their child’s education experience are impacted by extremely preterm birth (birth before 28 weeks...
We Are Recruiting New Families!
It’s on again! In July 2022, recruitment for the latest group of VICS study families began. All babies born extremely preterm (before 28 weeks gestation) or extremely low birth weight (less than 1000g) in Victoria between the 1st July 2022 and 30th June 2023 will be...