The specialty of neonatal-perinatal medicine strives to improve the care and outcome of infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This is done through research and quality improvement projects. Some of the clinical research activities in our NICU have identified new and improved methods of:
- Resuscitating infants in the delivery room
- Collecting and providing early colostrum (the first secretion from the mammary glands after giving birth, rich in antibodies)
- Maintaining appropriate oxygen saturation limits to avoid toxic effects
- Providing optimal ventilator management
- Enabling advanced nutrition support through intravenous nutrition and customized milk diets
- Using hypothermia to improve brain function and outcome in infants with asphyxia
- Enabling proper placement and maintenance of indwelling catheters through simulation and ultrasound techniques
Once we embark on a specific therapy, we plan metrics to ensure the technique is being utilized appropriately, and we use quality improvement techniques to test if any abnormalities occur.