Initiatives

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From day one, the Newborn Foundation’s pilots and initiatives were built on a three-pronged model: clinical need, governmental/public health agenda and advocacy. With the collaboration of supporters and partners–including lawmakers, clinicians, researchers, health industry representatives, governmental agencies, non-profits, educators and patient advocates–the Newborn Foundation has delivered on a commitment to developing and implementing boots-on-the-ground programs along with digital, cloud-based initiatives that front-line newborn health impact by leveraging technologies.

Newborn HealthConnect Hospital Communications & Certification Project

Advancing hospital clinical decision support and critical access, rural and telehealth infrastructure to support timely access to care and cross-collaboration among neonatal specialists, the project provides newborn nursery and NICU assessments of IT capacity, based on state and federal eHealth standards and Joint Commission guidelines, hospitals receive a grade level for acuity and integration of standards and best practices for newborn care, including:

the ability to connect electronically in realtime with Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and specialty care, or academic health centers to collaborate on cases.
the ability to provide point of care diagnostic imaging: allowing birthing hospitals to conduct on-site tests and use telehealth to support diagnoses and inform the care path for newborns and infants requiring specialty care and intervention.

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Growing Needs Project

Facilitating secure, real-time clinical health information exchange for the largest patient transfer population – newborns and infants, through a scalable newborn electronic public health record that grows with the child. Focusing on Minnesota as a prominent use case for rural screening, follow-up diagnostics, data collection, public health integration and care coordination (TOC), the Newborn Foundation expects to roll out the project with the Minnesota Department of Health to a total of 96 hospitals - represented by 7 major health systems.

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Newborn Pulse Oximetry Digital Resource Hub

The Newborn Foundation worked in collaboration with industry and the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and the Minnesota Department of Health, to create an open source educational video for CCHD screening, offering background on CHD and providing a visual guide for how and when to conduct screenings with the appropriate technologies in the newborn nursery. The video is available to providers in the U.S. and internationally by download from the homepage of newborn-foundation.org. Phase 2 includes the development of parent-focused educational videos on the importance of oxygen screening in newborns, along with the build out of a robust online resource for providers - with single-click access to screening protocols, implementation documents and demonstrations.

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China Summit + Pilot Program

Working in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Health and the National Office of Maternal and Child Health Surveillance, the Newborn Foundation is collaborating on the implementation of a phased pilot for newborn screening for Congenital Heart Defects and neonatal hypoxemia. The pilot was part of a first of its kind newborn screening infrastructure and field research study, which took place in April 2013. The inaugural China Summit on Newborn Screening and Early Detection of CHD (newbornsummit.org) was held in Beijing and included clinicians, and international delegation of newborn health experts, and senior public health officials at the national level and from all 31 Chinese provinces. With centers in urban and rural provinces, and a coordination and technical assistance center located at university hospital centers in Chengdu, Mianyang, Beijing and Shanghai respectively, the project aims to provide important data on a functional screening protocol, currently being adapted to conform to the needs of nursing staff and to support treatment/referral capacity in diverse locations. National and provincial level public health officials will be able to use the data gathered in this stage to support the nationwide addition of pulse oximetry screening.

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Innovation Incubator

Where there isn’t an existing solution, make one. The Newborn Foundation’s Innovation Incubator was developed to fill a need in emerging technology development– forging concepts and public/private partnerships to advance development and deployment of new, scalable IT or medtech solutions and interventions in support of pediatric health. To date, the organization has concepted 4 projects that are in various stages or development or implementation in the field.

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Whoosh

The Whoosh is designed to be a lower-cost, automated pediatric ultrasound device for heart and lung imaging in low resource settings to improve on limited access to echocardiography for infants. This device focuses on self-guided, machine learning-based processing to support improved outcomes through:

Improved global access to vital diagnostic device
Reduced reliance on clinicians or skilled echo technicians
Enhanced telemedicine capabilities
Earlier, more accurate diagnosis of heart and lung conditions
Assist in timely transfer decisions

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The BORN Project

A Global Newborn Oxygen Screening Initiative

The Newborn Foundation is actively working with global health agencies to launch several pilots around the use of mobile enabled pulse oximetry evaluation as part of routine neonatal screening for hypoxemia (low oxygen saturation). Nearly 41% of all under-five child deaths are among newborn infants, babies in their first 28 days of life. And three-quarters of all newborn deaths occur in the first week of life. In neonatal care where congenital pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome, aspiration syndromes, perinatal asphyxia, apnea and sepsis are common causes of morbidity and mortality, hypoxemia is common. In four studies in developing countries, 18 - 23% of neonatal hospital presentations had hypoxemia. There is now evidence that using pulse oximetry and having reliable oxygen sources in district and provincial hospitals in developing countries can specifically reduce pneumonia death rates by 35%, and reduce overall mortality. The project includes a robust data collection and electronic information exchange to support public health needs and rapid intervention. The Newborn Foundation has recently formalized a partnership with the WHO to expand and pilot the Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC). Using the Newborn HeartConnect Project in China as a model for implementation and data support, it is anticipated that the project may trigger additional NGOs and international health bodies to support this addition of standard practice for all newborns, regardless of geography.

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O₂ Newborn Care Initiative

The Newborn Foundation has recently begun working to develop a U.S. standard for the use of pulse oximetry in standard newborn well-child and preventive medicine care in the pediatric clinic realm. This process will include the development of educational specifications and equipment standards, along with the opportunity to mitigate against common misdiagnoses of critical health conditions in the pediatric and general practitioners office.

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Initiatives

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