Rate My Professor Peter Dargaville

Professor Peter Dargaville is a neonatologist and clinician-researcher affiliated with the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania, where he serves as Professorial Research Fellow in Neonatology. He trained in neonatology at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the University of California, San Francisco, completing a two-year research project on pulmonary surfactant abnormalities in ventilated infants with lung disease, for which he was awarded an MD from the University of Melbourne in 2000. Upon returning to Hobart in 2004, he directed the Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Hobart Hospital until 2015, transforming neonatal care in Tasmania and achieving survival rates for premature babies comparable to or exceeding national standards.

Dargaville's research centers on innovative therapies for neonatal lung disease in preterm infants, including the pioneering Hobart Method—a less invasive technique for surfactant administration in respiratory distress syndrome that has gained international adoption, reducing chronic lung disease rates and enhancing long-term outcomes. He co-invented the patented OxyGenie automated oxygen-control algorithm, now licensed for SLE ventilators and honored with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation. As chief investigator for NHMRC-funded multinational trials such as OPTIMIST-A on minimally invasive surfactant therapy and PLUSS on intratracheal budesonide mixed with surfactant, he leads the AUTOPIA program for automated oxygen titration. With over 140 publications, including landmark JAMA articles on OPTIMIST-A two-year outcomes (2023) and PLUSS results (2024), his contributions have significantly advanced preterm infant respiratory support worldwide.