The critical role of technologies in neonatal care

Taha, Syed; Simpson, Rosalind B.; Sharkey, Don

Abstract

Neonatal care has made significant advances in the last few decades. As a result, mortality and morbidity in high-risk infants, such as extremely preterm infants or those infants with birth-related brain injury, has reduced significantly. Many of these advances have been facilitated or delivered through development of medical technologies allowing clinical teams to be better supported with the care they deliver or provide new therapies and diagnostics to improve management. The delivery of neonatal intensive care requires the provision of medical technologies that are easy to use, reliable, accurate and ideally developed for the unique needs of the newborn population. Many technologies have been developed and commercialised following adult trials without ever being studied in neonatal patients despite the unique characteristics of this population. Increasingly, funders and industry are recognising this major challenge which has resulted in initiatives to develop new ideas from concept through to clinical care. This review explores some of the key medical technologies used in neonatal care and the evidence to support their adoption to improve outcomes. A number of devices have yet to realise their full potential and will require further development to optimise and find their ideal target population and clinical benefit. Examples of emerging technologies, which may soon become more widely used, are also discussed. As neonatal care relies more on medical technologies, we need to be aware of the impact on care pathways, especially from a human factors approach, the associated costs and subsequent benefits to patients alongside the supporting evidence.

Citation

Taha, S., Simpson, R. B., & Sharkey, D. (2023). The critical role of technologies in neonatal care. Early Human Development, 187, Article 105898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2023.105898

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 4, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-12
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2024
• Journal: Early Human Development
• Print ISSN: 0378-3782
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-6232
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 187
• Article Number: 105898
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2023.105898
• Keywords: Neonatal; Technology; Newborn; Intensive care; Monitoring; Devices
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/29548794
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The critical role of technologies in neonatal care; Journal Title: Early Human Development; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2023.105898; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.