The Incubator
A weekly discussion about new evidence in neonatal care and the fascinating individuals who make this progress possible. Hosted by Dr. Ben Courchia and Dr. Daphna Yasova Barbeau.
Episodes
#450 - 📑 [Journal Club] - 🫀From The Heart - The Complete Episode from July 4th 2026
Send us Fan MailNeonatal sepsis physiology, steroids, vasopressors, and moms.gov. A full week on The Incubator Journal Club.Adrianne and Nim open with a retrospective study from Toronto challenging the assumption that hypoxemic respiratory failure in septic preterm infants is driven by elevated pulmonary vascular resistance. The data points instead to left ventricular dysfunction as a key contribu
#450 - [Neo News] - 📌 What Does the Launch of moms.gov Mean for Your Patients?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli discuss the federal government's Mother's Day press conference and the launch of moms.gov, a new website aimed at supporting new and expecting mothers. They examine what the administration got right, including the real barriers families face in accessing maternal care and the economic challenges of having children in America today.
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Is Dopamine Still Defensible as First-Line for Neonatal Septic Shock?
Send us Fan MailIn this double-blind randomized controlled trial, Adrianne and Nim examine whether norepinephrine outperforms dopamine as a first-line vasoactive agent in neonates with fluid-refractory septic shock. The primary outcome, shock reversal at 30 minutes, was not significantly different between groups, at 32 percent for norepinephrine and 46 percent for dopamine. Secondary outcomes incl
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Does Early Hydrocortisone Actually Move the Needle in Fluid-Refractory Shock?
Send us Fan MailIn this double-blind randomized controlled trial from northern India, Nim and Adrianne review whether early hydrocortisone reduces 14-day all-cause mortality in preterm infants with fluid-refractory shock. The primary outcome showed no statistically significant difference between groups, though an 11 percent absolute reduction in mortality in the hydrocortisone group raised clinica
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀From The Heart - When Nitric Oxide Fails: Is the Left Ventricle the Culprit in Septic Preterm Infants?
Send us Fan MailIn this retrospective single-center study from Toronto, Adrianne and Nim explore the echo findings of preterm infants with septic shock and hypoxemic respiratory failure. Contrary to the common assumption that elevated pulmonary vascular resistance drives hypoxemia in sepsis, the data points to left ventricular dysfunction as a key contributor. Babies with hypoxemic respiratory fai
#449 - What Do Division Heads Think About the Shortened Fellowship Proposal?
Send us Fan MailWhat would it really mean to shorten neonatology fellowship training to two years? In this episode, Ben and co-host Dr. Shetal Shah sit down with three division heads, Dr. Jill Maron (Brown), Dr. Patrick McNamara (University of Iowa), and Dr. Sarah Taylor (Yale), to examine the ABP's proposed changes from the perspective of those who run major academic NICUs. From the operatio
#448 - Are NICU Outcomes Actually Getting Better Over Time? (ft Dr. Joseph Kaempf)
Send us Fan MailWhat does it mean to truly improve outcomes for very low birth weight infants, and are we actually doing it? In this episode, Daphna sits down with Dr. Joseph Kaempf, neonatologist and Medical Director of Value Research and Innovation at Providence Health System in Oregon, to examine some uncomfortable truths about neonatal quality improvement. Dr. Kaempf shares findings from a stu
#447 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from June 13th 2026
Send us Fan MailPhototherapy duration, jaundice and UTIs, extended CPAP, and The Pitt. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club.Ben opens with a nationwide Swedish cohort study from JAMA Network Open examining phototherapy duration in nearly 5,000 very preterm infants. Longer phototherapy was not significantly associated with late neonatal mortality, but six to seven days was associated with sign
#447 - [Neo News] - 📌 - Why Are Doctors Flocking to HBO Max's The Pitt?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli discuss the cultural phenomenon of HBO Max’s new hit medical drama, The Pitt. Sparked by an insightful critique in The New Yorker by Dr. Dhruv Khullar, they dive into why this Noah Wyle-led series is capturing the attention of millions of Americans, including healthcare workers and patients alike. They explore how the show’s unflinching port
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is a Five-Day Antibiotic Course Enough to Treat UTIs in the NICU?
Send us Fan MailIs five days of antibiotics enough to treat a urinary tract infection in a NICU infant? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a single-center study from Nationwide Children's Hospital examining adherence and safety of a five-day antibiotic treatment guideline for culture and urinalysis-proven UTIs in the NICU. Among 77 infants with 93 bacterial UTIs, the five-day
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does Extended CPAP Reduce Intermittent Hypoxemia in Stable Preterm Infants?
Send us Fan MailWhat happens to intermittent hypoxemia when you keep a stable preterm infant on CPAP for two extra weeks? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a secondary analysis from the Journal of Pediatrics by Mamidi and McEvoy. Among 95 infants randomized to either two additional weeks of bubble CPAP on room air or discontinued CPAP, those in the extended CPAP group experienced
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Are we missing UTIs in neonates hospitalized for unexplained jaundice?
Send us Fan MailIn this Journal Club episode, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from Istanbul examining clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound factors associated with UTI in neonates hospitalized for unexplained hyperbilirubinemia. Among 96 term and near-term infants, 31% had culture-proven UTIs, a striking prevalence. Pathological renal ultrasound findings were independently associated wi
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is phototherapy doing more harm than good in very preterm infants?
Send us Fan MailIn this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a nationwide Swedish cohort study examining the association between phototherapy duration and neonatal outcomes in very preterm infants (22 to 31 weeks). The study’s primary outcome, late neonatal mortality on days 8 to 27, was not significantly associated with phototherapy duration. However, longer phototherapy exposure was assoc
#446 - Is Bedside Transcatheter PDA Closure Ready for Your NICU?
Send us Fan MailWhat if closing a PDA could be done at the bedside in under 10 minutes, without transporting a fragile preterm infant to the cath lab? Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Nicklaus Children's Heart Institute, joins us to discuss the evolution of transcatheter PDA closure in extremely preterm infants. We cover how bedside procedures protect the most vulner
#445 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from May 30th 2026
Send us Fan MailOpioid withdrawal dosing, intranasal breast milk, human milk fortification in Japan, neonatal dysphagia, and vaccine policy. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club.Ben opens with the Optimized NOW trial in JAMA: symptom-based dosing reduced time to medical readiness for discharge by nearly two and a half days in NOWS infants managed with Eat Sleep Console, and allowed 65% of pha
#445 - [Neo News] - 📌 Are Regulatory Roadblocks Threatening the Future of Neonatal Vaccines?
Send us Fan MailIn this fast-paced episode of Neo News, Eli and Ben tackle the rapidly shifting landscape of vaccine regulation and economics in the US. They discuss recent political maneuvers surrounding the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and how expanding liability could quietly push manufacturers out of the market entirely. The hosts also examine the FDA's recent hesitation to
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Are we missing dysphagia in very preterm infants before they leave the NICU?
Send us Fan MailHow often are we missing dysphagia in our most vulnerable NICU patients? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from the Journal of Perinatology examining the incidence and risk factors of dysphagia confirmed by flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) in very preterm and very low birth weight infants. Among infants showing persisten
#445 - What Can Japan Teach Us About Treating Human Milk Fortifier as a Drug? (Part 2)
Send us Fan MailWhat does it take to turn a single struggling baby into a national standard of care? In this episode, Ben sits down with Professor Katsumi Mizuno (Showa Medical University) and Dr. Melinda Elliott (Chief Medical Officer, Prolacta Bioscience) to discuss the landmark Jasmine Trial, the first randomized controlled trial of an exclusive human milk diet (EHMD) in Japan. The results: sig
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does an exclusive human milk diet improve growth in very low birth weight infants? (Part 1)
Send us Fan MailJapan has some of the best survival rates for extremely preterm infants in the world, yet feeding practices there look very different from what many of us are used to. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben reviews the JASMINE trial, a multicenter phase three randomized controlled trial evaluating an exclusive human milk diet compared to a standard cow milk-based diet in very low bir
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can a few drops of breast milk in a preterm infant's nose actually improve cerebral oxygenation?
Send us Fan MailCould putting a few drops of breast milk in a preterm infant's nose actually improve cerebral oxygenation? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a randomized controlled trial from the European Journal of Pediatrics investigating the physiologic effects of intranasal expressed breast milk (EBM) administration in preterm infants. The study found that infants receiving
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can symptom-based dosing cut hospitalization time for babies with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome?
Send us Fan MailOne infant is diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome every 27 minutes, and rates are rising. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna review the Optimized NOW randomized clinical trial, a landmark multicenter study published in JAMA. The trial compared symptom-based dosing, a single opioid dose given when a withdrawal threshold is met against the traditional sch
#444 - Can a Beanie Protect NICU Infants from Harmful Noise While Keeping Them Connected to Their Parents?
Send us Fan MailThe NICU is one of the loudest environments a newborn will ever experience, yet it is also where the most vulnerable infants spend their earliest, most developmentally critical days. In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Gabby Daltoso and Sophie Ishiwari, co-founders of the Sonura Beanie. Their device tackles two pressing NICU challenges at once: harmful noise
#443 - Could NeoGuide Be the Answer to the NICU’s Variability Problem?
Send us Fan MailEvery neonatologist has built a protocol or written a guideline, and most have done it completely alone. In this episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Christina Muffy Sollinger (UC Davis) and Dr. Sarvin Ghavam (CHOP), the co-founders of NeoGuide, a national collaborative dedicated to connecting clinicians around the shared work of clinical guidelines and practice pathways. Born from a si
#442 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from May 16th 2026
Send us Fan MailCerebral oxygenation, staffing economics, delivery room scoring, neurodevelopmental prognostication, and public health — a full week on the Incubator Journal Club.Ben walks through the NIRTURE trial, a single-device RCT testing cerebral oximetry-guided care in infants born under 29 weeks. The intervention dramatically reduced the burden of cerebral hypoxia and hyperoxia compared to
#442 - [Neo News] - 📌 What Is the Ripple Effect of Defunding Disease Surveillance?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli tackle the recent, quiet—but massive—public health funding cuts implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services. With $600 million pulled back from four targeted states and additional CDC block grants eliminated, they discuss the severe domestic implications for local health departments, HIV/STI surveillance, and lead poisoning pr
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does combining EEG and MRI improve neurodevelopmental prognostication in preterm infants?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Journal Club, we wrap up a marathon recording session with a deep dive into the world of neonatal neuroprognostication. Daphna reviews a systematic review and meta-analysis from Pediatric Neurology that evaluates whether combining EEG and MRI provides better answers for families of preterm infants. While MRI remains a powerful tool for structural assessment, the
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is a low Apgar score more concerning than a low umbilical pH in preemies?
Send us Fan MailBen kicks things off with a major career update before we dive into a critical study from JAMA Network Open. We explore the predictive value of the five minute Apgar score when combined with umbilical artery pH in very preterm infants. While the Apgar score was originally designed for term babies, this analysis of the EPICE cohort reveals its enduring utility even in the smallest p
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does 24 hour in house staffing decrease physician productivity metrics?
Send us Fan MailIs your NICU considering the shift to 24 hour in house attending coverage? In this episode of Journal Club, we explore a provocative brief communication from the Journal of Perinatology. Ben and Daphna discuss the impact of moving from home call to on site presence at UC Davis. While the change was intended to improve patient care, the data reveals a surprising 15 percent decrease
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does NIRS guided treatment improve clinical outcomes for extremely preterm infants?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna dive into the results of the NIRTURE trial, recently published in JAMA Network Open. Building on the lessons of SafeBoosC 3 , the NIRTURE investigators aimed to reduce the burden of cerebral hypoxia and hyperoxia in extremely preterm infants using a standardized NIRS guided treatment protocol. While the study showed a dramatic improve
#441 - Is Two Years Enough? Fellowship Directors Respond to the ABP’s Proposed Training Overhaul
Send us Fan MailThe American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) recently announced a move toward competency-based subspecialty training that would shorten fellowships — including neonatology — from three years to two. The proposal has sent shockwaves through the training community. In this episode, Daphna sits down with three leaders from the Organization of Neonatal Perinatal Training Program Directors (O
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Goes Into Planning the Biggest Pediatric Conference in the World?
Send us Fan MailDr. Daniel Rauch, PAS 2026 program chair, joins Ben for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off a conference of this scale — and what he's learned from this year's record-breaking attendance in Boston. He reflects on the sessions that packed rooms beyond capacity, from the Tiny Baby Collaborative to AI in pediatrics, and shares what's on the horizon for
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is the Neonatology Job Market About to Shift Dramatically in Fellows' Favor?
Send us Fan MailDr. Benny Rossner, PGY-2 pediatrics resident and veteran physician recruiter with 15 years of experience building clinical teams across the country, joins Ben and Rupa for a candid look at the neonatology workforce from a side of the conversation trainees rarely hear. He breaks down why demand for neonatologists is rising — sicker and younger patients, a shrinking APP pipeline into
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Ready for Gentle Hemodynamics the Way We Embraced Gentle Ventilation?
Send us Fan MailDr. Gabriel Altit and Daniela Villegas from the NeoCardioLab at Montreal join Ben and Rupa to reflect on a packed PAS filled with hemodynamics science — from pulmonary hypertension phenotyping to heart-brain interactions in the golden hour. Dr. Altit makes the case that just as neonatology learned to embrace gentle ventilation, it is time to think about gentle hemodynamics — interv
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - When Is the Right Time to Talk to a Family About a Tracheostomy for BPD?
Send us Fan MailDr. Kristen Leeman and Dr. Jonathan Levin join Ben to debrief a packed interactive session on tracheostomy timing and counseling for babies with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Using iterative cases and live audience polling, they mapped the wide variability in practice across the country — finding rough consensus that tracheostomy conversations become likely around 44 to
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Does It Take to Build a World-Class NICU From the Ground Up?
Send us Fan MailDr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, division chief at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's Hospital and one of neonatology's most prolific investigators, joins Ben to share what's keeping him busy — 14 active clinical trials including studies on IGF-1 for lung injury prevention, oral insulin for weight gain, and the upcoming phase three trial of aerosolized surfactant. He reflects o
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - How Did One NICU Take 22-Weeker Survival From 12% to 72%?
Send us Fan MailDr. Thais Queliz, neonatologist at Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, presents ten years of data from one of the country's highest-volume programs caring exclusively for babies born at 22 to 24 weeks. She shares how survival rates for 22 and 23-weekers climbed from 40% before the Tiny Baby program launched to 67% overall — and 72% over the last two years — driven by institutio
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Do We Even Know What a Healthy Preterm Gut Looks Like on Ultrasound?
Send us Fan MailDr. Indrani Bhattacharjee, neonatologist and POCUS program director at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, joins Ben to discuss a fascinating and largely unexplored frontier — intestinal ultrasound in healthy preterm infants. Rather than waiting for NEC to appear, her team has been systematically scanning babies born under 32 weeks every week from one week of age until eight weeks or d
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is LISA the Future of Surfactant Delivery for Premature Babies?
Send us Fan MailDr. Surabhi Aggarwal, neonatologist at Stony Brook University, joins Ben and Rupa to share five years of experience building a LISA — Less Invasive Surfactant Administration — program from the ground up at her institution. She walks through the obstacles of getting IRB approval, gaining clinical buy-in from colleagues comfortable with intubation, and how the introduction of video l
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Could Donor Milk Cream Replace Dextrose Gel for Newborn Hypoglycemia?
Send us Fan MailDr. Arpitha Chiruvolu, neonatologist and infant nutrition researcher, joins Ben to share three posters from this year's PAS covering two of her core research interests. She presents pilot data on using Prolacta human milk cream as an alternative to dextrose gel for treating asymptomatic neonatal hypoglycemia — highlighting the well-known limitations of dextrose gel including i
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Could a Quarterly Injection Replace a Liver Transplant for This Rare Kidney Disease?
Send us Fan MailDr. David Sas, pediatric nephrologist at Mayo Clinic, joins Ben to discuss primary hyperoxaluria type 1 — a rare but devastating genetic disease where the liver overproduces oxalate, flooding the kidneys with crystals and leading to end-stage kidney failure in roughly 60% of patients, historically requiring both a liver and kidney transplant. He presents 60-month long-term extensio
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Does It Take to Build a Pediatric Transport Team From Scratch?
Send us Fan MailDr. Kyle Willsey, pediatric critical care transport director at Cedars-Sinai, joins Daphna to discuss one of the least standardized corners of pediatric and neonatal medicine — critical care transport. With children's hospitals closing across the country and tertiary centers absorbing more of the patient load, the demand for safe, well-trained transport teams is growing at the
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is Gaming Addiction in Kids With ADHD About the Games or the Parenting?
Send us Fan MailDr. Emily Wassmer, researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, presents findings from one of the first studies to examine gaming addiction in young children ages 5 to 12 with ADHD diagnoses. Using a newly developed caregiver-report screening tool based on DSM-5 criteria for internet gaming disorder, she found that inattention — more than hyperactivity, anxiety, depressi
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Studying the Right Things the Right Way in Neonatology?
Send us Fan MailDr. Lily Lou joins Daphna and Rupa to reflect on this year's Silverman Lecture at PAS — the annual honorary lecture of the AAP Section on Neonatal Perinatal Medicine — delivered by Dr. John Ioannidis of Boston, who turned the lens of research methodology back on the research community itself. Drawing on meta-analyses of meta-analyses, he offered ten provocations about how neon
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is the Real Fix to Neonatology Training Shorter Residency, Not Shorter Fellowship?
Send us Fan MailDr. Satyan Lakshminrusimha, pediatric chair and neonatologist, joins Ben hot off the ONTPD meeting to share his perspective on the ABP fellowship reform debate — and it's more nuanced than a simple yes or no to a two-year fellowship. He argues that the real problem is a six-year training pipeline that is driving medical students away from pediatric subspecialties under crushin
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Actually Delivering Good Bag Mask Ventilation in the Delivery Room?
Send us Fan MailDr. Nathan Sundgren, neonatologist and NRP educator at Texas Children's Hospital, joins Ben to discuss one of the most deceptively difficult skills in neonatal resuscitation — effective bag mask ventilation. He shares findings from a fellowship training study showing that respiratory function monitor feedback improves ventilation technique equally well across all three device
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What If a Conference Actually Told You Both Sides of Every Controversy?
Send us Fan MailDr. Matthew Saxonhouse, neonatologist at Atrium Health, joins Ben to discuss two initiatives designed to fill the gaps that traditional conferences often leave behind. The first is Neonatal Insights, a biennial meeting returning January 29-31, 2027 in Houston — both in person and virtual — where controversial topics like the new hypoglycemia guidelines, cord blood transfusions, opt
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is There a Journal That Actually Lets Everyone in Neonatology Publish?
Send us Fan MailDr. Mitchell Goldstein, neonatologist at Loma Linda University and editor-in-chief of Neonatology Today, joins Ben to share the story behind one of neonatology's most accessible and wide-reaching publications — a peer-reviewed, open-access journal with 25,000 monthly readers worldwide, no publication fees, no page limits, and no color charges. He explains the philosophy behind
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Do We Actually Know About Epinephrine in Neonatal Resuscitation?
Send us Fan MailDr. Jayasree Nair, neonatal resuscitation expert, joins Ben to reflect on one of the most humbling realities in neonatology — nearly everything we know about epinephrine use in extensive neonatal resuscitation comes from animal studies, adult data, or pediatric populations, not neonates. She explains why the pyramid of resuscitation research narrows dramatically as you move toward
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Why Are We Still Losing 3,700 Babies a Year to Sudden Infant Death?
Send us Fan MailChristie Lawrence, clinical nurse specialist at Rush University Medical Center, joins Ben to discuss sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) — the updated term that encompasses all sleep-related infant deaths, including what was formerly called SIDS. In Cook County alone, an infant dies every week from SUID, with Black infants dying at 14 times the rate of white infants — a disparity
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are Children's Hospitals Running Out of Room to Care?
Send us Fan MailDr. Elisabeth Kuhn, researcher focused on hospital operations, presents findings from a mixed-methods study examining how US children's hospitals measure and respond to capacity strain — the point at which demand for care outpaces the ability to deliver it safely. In a survey of 45 tertiary children's hospitals, 43 reported experiencing capacity strain in the past year, u
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Happens When Hospitals Stop Assuming and Start Listening?
Send us Fan MailKimberly Novod, community health advocate, founder of Sol's Light, and fierce voice for health equity, joins Ben for a conversation about what it actually means to build trust between hospitals and the communities they serve. Drawing on her experience in New Orleans — where the prematurity rate sits at 14% and environmental factors like air, water, and soil quality in areas li
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Does It Take to Build a Neonatology Fellowship From Scratch in Rwanda?
Send us Fan MailDr. Brandon Hadfield and Dr. Debora Abimana join Ben for a conversation that brings the incubator's global neonatology work full circle — from the founding of Rwanda's first neonatology fellowship program to seeing its first trainee present scholarly work at PAS. Dr. Abimana shares findings from her research on healthcare provider attitudes toward donor human milk in Rwan
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Can Cord Milking Save Non-Vigorous Babies Who Can't Wait for Delayed Clamping?
Send us Fan MailDr. Zubair Aghai, neonatologist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, presents results from one of the largest neonatal trials ever conducted — enrolling 3,448 late preterm and term infants across India to test whether umbilical cord milking in non-vigorous newborns reduces death or moderate-to-severe HIE. With over 100,000 deliveries screened and real-time data collected
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is AI Finally Ready for the NICU?
Send us Fan MailDr. Ryan McAdams guest hosts alongside the NeoMind AI team — Dr. Ameena Husain, Dr. Kristyn Beam, Dr. Brynne Sullivan, and Dr. Zach Vesoulis — to recap their third annual pre-conference AI workshop at PAS, including a live predictive modeling bake-off using the Epic Cosmos database to predict late-onset sepsis in nearly 100,000 preterm infants. The group discusses where AI stands t
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are Babies on Dialysis at Much Higher Risk for Brain Injury Than We Thought?
Send us Fan MailDr. Melissa Zhou, researcher at the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National, joins Daphna to discuss functional MRI and what it reveals about how preterm brains are building connections during the NICU stay. Using functional connectivity — measuring how different brain regions communicate with each other over time — her team compares preterm infants to healthy in ute
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Can We See How a Preterm Brain Is Wiring Itself in Real Time?
Send us Fan MailDr. Kevin Cook, researcher at the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National, joins Daphna to discuss functional MRI and what it reveals about how preterm brains are building connections during the NICU stay. Using functional connectivity — measuring how different brain regions communicate with each other over time — his team compares preterm infants to healthy in utero
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Do the Tiniest Babies Survive More With Longer Antibiotic Courses?
Send us Fan MailDr. Gesca Borchardt, third-year neonatology fellow at Winnie Palmer Hospital, presents findings from a retrospective study of 296 infants born under 25 weeks examining whether extending empiric antibiotic use beyond 72 hours reduces mortality in this vulnerable population. She shares why her unit moved to a seven-day antibiotic course for babies with placental pathology positive fo
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are Preterm Brains Already Smaller Before We Even Start Treating Them?
Send us Fan MailDr. Katie Ottolini, researcher at the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National in Washington DC, presents findings from a longitudinal MRI study comparing brain growth trajectories in preterm infants to healthy fetuses — scanning as early as 25 weeks and through term corrected age. Even in preterm babies with no significant brain injury and appropriate growth at birth
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Can We Give Fewer Opioids to Babies With Withdrawal Syndrome?
Send us Fan MailDr. Lori Devlin, neonatologist and principal investigator of the Optimize Now trial, shares results from the first multicenter randomized trial comparing symptom-based opioid dosing to scheduled opioid tapers in babies with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). Published in JAMA on the day of this recording, the trial found that symptom-based dosing reduced medical readiness
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are Language Barriers in the NICU Actually Costing Babies Their Lives?
Send us Fan MailDr. John Feister, neonatologist and health equity researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, presents two studies that challenge us to look beyond the bedside. The first reveals that NICU babies whose families prefer a language other than English have nearly double the in-hospital mortality rate of English-speaking families — a difference that persisted even after adjusting
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Hep C and Long COVID: Two Infections We're Not Taking Seriously Enough
Send us Fan MailDr. Ravi Jhaveri, infectious disease physician at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, joins Daphna for a conversation spanning two underappreciated threats in pediatrics. On hepatitis C, he shares that up to 90% of perinatally exposed infants never get tested despite clear guidance — and makes the case for point-of-care, heel-stick based testing that meets families where the
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Can We Vaccinate Teenagers Against Fentanyl Overdose?
Send us Fan MailDr. Sharon Levy, director of the Division of Addiction Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, joins Daphna for a wide-ranging conversation on adolescent substance use. She shares data showing a sudden spike in nicotine exposure among teens in treatment for substance use disorders — likely driven by larger vape devices and cooling agents that eliminate the burn sensation — and
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Does It Matter How You Close a PDA for Neurodevelopment?
Send us Fan MailDr. Jonathan Flyer, pediatric and fetal cardiologist at the University of Vermont, presents findings from a Vermont Oxford Network analysis of over 11,000 extremely low birth weight infants examining whether the method of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closure — transcatheter device versus surgical ligation — makes a difference for neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 to 24 months. Th
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Does What We Feed and How We Clear Meconium Change Survival in Tiny Babies?
Send us Fan MailDr. Brandon Tucker and Dr. Jenelle Ferry share two studies tackling some of the most pressing challenges in the care of extremely low birth weight infants. Dr. Tucker presents a quality improvement initiative examining whether switching from PRN glycerin suppositories to scheduled glycerin enemas every 12 hours reduces feeding intolerance and spontaneous intestinal perforation in b
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Leaving Dads Out of the Most Important Moments in Their Baby's Care?
Send us Fan MailDr. John James Parker, internist, pediatrician, and researcher at Northwestern University and Lurie Children's Hospital, joins Daphna and Rupa for a conversation about one of the most overlooked players in family-centered care — fathers. He shares why paternal stress in the NICU and postpartum period often peaks later than maternal stress, why discharge instructions routinely
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Visiting Language-Minority Families Less Often in the Hospital?
Send us Fan MailDr. Christina Rojas, from Lurie Children's Hospital, presents findings from a multi-center study across eight hospitals examining how often hospitalized patients and families receive communication touchpoints from their care team — and whether that differs based on preferred language. Across more than 30 languages represented in the study, families who preferred a language oth
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Does Tylenol During Pregnancy Actually Cause Autism or ADHD?
Send us Fan MailDr. Ayesha Khalid, resident at Marshall University, presents findings from a large meta-analysis pooling data from eight national registries across Europe — covering 2.5 million pregnancies — to examine whether prenatal acetaminophen exposure is truly linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. She shares why the associa
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is Procalcitonin Plus CRP the Better Sepsis Screen for Febrile Infants?
Send us Fan MailDr. Lyubina Yankova, hospitalist at Yale, presents findings from a large retrospective multi-center analysis across 106 sites examining whether the combination of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein (CRP) can match or outperform the inflammatory marker combinations currently recommended by the 2021 AAP guidelines for risk-stratifying febrile infants between 8 and 60 days of age. S
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Why Can't We Give the Same Vaccine to Every Baby and Call It a Day?
Send us Fan MailDr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital and member of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee, makes the case that vaccines must be tailored to the immune system of the person receiving them — and that immune system changes dramatically from the moment of birth through old age. He explains why pre
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Is the Right Cord Management Plan for Every Baby in the Delivery Room?
Send us Fan MailDr. Anup Katheria, one of the world's leading researchers in umbilical cord management, joins Daphna to share the latest data on deferred cord clamping and cord milking across gestational ages. He presents new two-year follow-up findings showing that while cord milking remains a reasonable alternative to immediate cord clamping, delayed cord clamping still carries a measurable
#439 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Good Morning From PAS 2026 Day Two!
Send us Fan MailDaphna is back for day two of PAS 2026 in Boston, joined in the booth by Christa and Rupa. More episodes coming all day — and if you're at the conference, stop by and say hi.Support the showAs always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Can Freeze-Dried Mother's Own Breast Milk Replace Commercial Fortifiers in the NICU?
Send us Fan MailDr. Bridget Young, researcher at the University of Rochester, shares early but promising work on using freeze-dried mother's own breast milk — including a skim milk fraction — as a fortifier for human milk feeds in the NICU. She explains why milk variability makes accuracy the central challenge in this approach, how her team validated a method using macronutrient analysis to c
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Happens to First Attempt LP Success When You Add Ultrasound?
Send us Fan MailFrom lumbar punctures to mitochondrial recycling, this booth interview from PAS 2026 covers a lot of ground. Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Ioanna Kotsopoulou from Mass General to discuss two distinct but equally compelling topics. First, a quality improvement project that took ultrasound-guided LP use from 12 to 73 percent and first attempt success from 32 to 68 percent. Then a
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Do Febrile Infants in Their First Month of Life Still Need a Lumbar Puncture?
Send us Fan MailDr. Nathan Kupperman and Dr. Brett Bernstein, lead investigators on a landmark international pooled analysis published in JAMA, present the most comprehensive evidence to date on whether a lumbar puncture can be safely avoided in febrile infants under one month of age. Using a simple three-criteria rule — negative urinalysis, procalcitonin of 0.5 or below, and absolute neutrophil c
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Would Periviable Counseling Look Like If We Let Parents Lead?
Send us Fan MailWhat does it actually feel like to be told your 22-week baby has no chance — before anyone asks what you want? In this booth interview recorded live at PAS 2026, Ben and Daphna sit down with two NICU parents, Christelle and Reem, both of whom delivered at the limits of viability. They share candid, at times difficult accounts of prenatal counseling experiences where they felt dismi
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - How Do You Risk Stratify Sepsis In A Low Resource Setting?
Send us Fan MailPoint-of-care biomarkers for predicting sepsis mortality, not from a resource-rich academic center, but from a tertiary referral hospital in Tanzania. In this booth interview from PAS 2026, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Abigail Sorensen, a pediatrician now based in East Africa, to discuss how a lasso model combining malnutrition, altered mental status, respiratory distress, and
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Neonatology in Burundi: QI at the Edge of the World (ft. Dr. Jennifer Harling)
Send us Fan MailDr. Jennifer Harling, pediatrician and neonatologist who spent six years practicing in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, shares what it took to introduce breast milk fortification, bubble CPAP, and revised sepsis protocols in a setting with nurse-to-patient ratios as high as one to forty and near-zero access to medical supplies. She reflects on the extraordinary o
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Eat, Sleep, Console at Two Years: Long-Term Outcomes for Opioid-Exposed Infants (ft. Dr. Ward Rice)
Send us Fan MailDr. Ward Rice, neonatologist and researcher within the Neonatal Research Network, presents two-year follow-up data from the landmark ACT NOW Eat Sleep Console trial — one of the largest multi-center randomized trials ever conducted on neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. He shares findings on neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes at two years of age in babies exposed to bupren
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Should Neonatology Fellowship Be Shortened to Two Years? (ft. Dr. Christa Matrone)
Send us Fan MailDr. Christa Matrone, neonatologist and program director at Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida, joins Ben and Daphna for a candid conversation about one of the most consequential announcements to hit neonatology training in years. She breaks down the American Board of Pediatrics proposal to create an optional two-year clinical training pathway for all pediatric subspecialtie
#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Are We Correcting for Gestational Age Long Enough in Our Most Premature Infants? (ft. Dr. Allison Lure)
Send us Fan MailDr. Allison Lure, neonatologist and clinical informatics fellow, presents findings from a large primary care network spanning over 80 practices in Massachusetts on how term and preterm infants grow longitudinally after discharge. She shares why the standard practice of correcting for gestational age until two years may be sufficient for moderate and late preterm infants but falls s
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