What Does The Future Hold For Neonatology?
There have been a lot of great technological advances in neonatology in the last few years, such as surfactant, high frequency ventilators, extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and nitric oxide. There has also been amazing progress in other, related areas such as cardiac surgery for infants and heart transplants. These new technologies and techniques have made it possible for us to save many tiny or critically-ill babies that would have died twenty years ago. The surprising thing about NICUs, considering how data-intensive they are, is that most of them do not use computers in any effective way. There is also relatively little sharing of information or uniformity of care from one NICU to another. It is amazing how many of the policies and procedures in NICUs are used because “they have always been done that way” rather than on the basis of any sound medical evidence. These are areas that need close attention over the next few years. The place that improvements are desperately n
