Newborn Brain Society

Gabriel Variane, MD, PhD

Co-Chair of Communication and Networking Committee

Dr. Gabriel F. T. Variane graduated from Medical School at Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo in 2009, completed his Pediatric training and neonatal fellowship at Santa Casa de Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2014. Prior to his current position, he was a visiting observer at Montreal Children’s Hospital, McGill University, Canada (2014), The Rosie Maternity Hospital, University of Cambridge, UK (2015) and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford University, US (2016). Dr. Variane is currently the medical director of Neonatal Neuro-Critical Care program at Santa Casa and staff neonatologist practicing in three different hospitals at Group Santa Joana, Sao Paulo.

In 2016, Dr. Variane started a nation-wide project and organization called Protecting Brains and Saving Futures (PBSF). The organization goal was to provide education and implementation of strategies of neuroprotection and brain monitoring on a large scale for babies at risk of brain injury. PBSF utilizes state of the art telemedicine and IT technology in collaboration with Microsoft including cloud computing and artificial intelligence systems to provide remote and real time assistance for 32 different hospitals across the entire country. Along with this educational effort, Dr. Variane has been directing a series of workshops and conferences in Brazil and other countries in Latin America to promote brain focused NICU care. His work at PBSF has been nominated and awarded several national and international recognitions.

Dr. Variane clinical and research focus on the use of neuroprotection strategies in LMIC. Recently he has been collaborating with Imperial College London, UK, in a multicenter study through NIH, in which a cloud EEG system was created to allow remote monitoring of infants from 3 different hospitals in India. His research also focuses the use of multimodality aEEG/EEG and NIRS monitoring using a cloud computing and machine learning technology to better understand the physiology and complex pathophysiology of brain activity and perfusion in infants at risk, collaborating in a multicenter study together with Neuro NICU team from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, US.