The Incubator

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Katie Huff (Cincinnati Children’s) and Dr. Pritha Nayak (Dallas Children’s) discuss the work of the CHNC Intestinal Failure Focus Group. They highlight the unique challenges of managing neonates post-NEC, including TPN, nutrition, and long-term outcomes. The group’s recent survey revealed significant variability across centers, including the presence of dedica...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Anson and Dr. Luke Viehl from the CHNC Transport Focus Group discuss establishing consensus definitions for emergent neonatal transports across North American NICUs. Using a modified Delphi process, they surveyed 48 CHNC sites on diagnoses, clinical signs, and specialized equipment, achieving over 80% consensus in all categories. Standardized criteri...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Jacqueline Evans, Dr. Theresa Grover, and Dr. Karna Murthy provide an update on the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC), highlighting its growth to 52 centers and over 375,000 infants in the registry. They discuss the symposium’s expansion, multi-center quality improvement collaboratives, and focus groups that enable data-driven research and clinic...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion features Dr. Charada Gowda and Dr. Jessica Fry, leaders in the CHNC collaborative network, highlighting ongoing work within the CDH and Palliative Care & Ethics (PACE) focus groups. The CDH group is developing consensus clinical practice guidelines and has created an outcomes calculator to support more informative prenatal counseling and individualized care pla...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion features Dr. Malathi Balasundaram and Morgan Kowalski, leaders of the CHNC Family-Centered Care Task Force, outlining how Family Partnership Councils integrate families as true partners in NICU care, policy development, and quality improvement. Instead of providing feedback after decisions are made, families co-create guidelines and initiatives from the start, prom...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion features Dr. Clyde Wright, Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who studies perinatal innate immunity and neonatal lung injury. He highlights the rapid rise of acetaminophen as the most commonly used medication for ductal closure in preterm infants despite limited long-term safety data. Dr. Wrigh...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion features Dr. Beena Kamath-Rayne, a neonatologist at Lurie Children’s and Senior Vice President of Global Health and Clinical Skills at the American Academy of Pediatrics, describing how collaborative programs are improving neonatal care quality nationwide. She explains the AAP’s NICU Verification (Neonatal Excellence) Program, which supports level II–IV units in ev...

Send us Fan Mail In this CHNC 2025 conversation, Daphna speaks with Dr. Beverley Brozanski (St. Louis Children’s) and Dr. Anthony Piazza (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta) about the evolution of quality improvement within the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC). They trace the journey from the first collaborative—reducing central line infections—to today’s data-driven, multicenter init...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode from the CHNC 2025 Symposium, The Incubator welcomes Dr. Briana Bertoni and Dr. Gene Pallotto to discuss the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium’s (CHNC) CIQI program and its ongoing quality improvement initiatives. They share results from Project Home, a multicenter effort to increase human milk use at discharge—highlighting how transport teams, unified famil...

Send us Fan Mail In this CHNC 2025 episode, The Incubator speaks with Dr. Sandy Johng (Seattle Children’s) and Dr. Kelsey Montgomery (Riley Children’s Hospital) about the collaborative work of the CDH Focus Group within the consortium. They discuss a national effort to evaluate bivalirudin versus heparin for ECMO anticoagulation in infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia—a shift driven by pro...

Send us Fan Mail Live from the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC) 2025 Symposium in Denver, The Incubator host Dr. Daphna Yasova Barbeau sits down with Dr. Diana Montoya Williams, neonatologist and researcher, to explore how in-person collaboration shapes the future of neonatal medicine. They discuss CHNC’s role in connecting clinicians across Level IV NICUs through data sharing, qual...

Send us Fan Mail Join Dr. Daphna Yasova Barbeau as she kicks off The Incubator’s live coverage from the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC) 2025 Symposium in Denver. This opening episode sets the stage for two days of conversations focused on improving care for high-risk infants through data sharing, collaboration, and quality improvement across Level IV NICUs. Daphna introduces the mi...

Send us Fan Mail The Incubator Podcast welcomes Dr. Henry Lee, Associate Editor of the Textbook of Neonatal Resuscitation, to discuss the ninth edition of the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP). They review major updates released October 22, 2025, including the extended 60 second delayed cord clamping, new guidance on cord milking, refined oxygen targets, ventilation parameters, and updates to a...

Send us Fan Mail What’s new in neonatal innovation and research this week? Join Ben and Daphna for a lively Journal Club episode of The Incubator Podcast, recorded after a long NICU day but packed with energy and insight. They begin with an update on the newly released NRP 9th Edition, preview their excitement for the upcoming Delphi Neonatal Innovation Conference, and then dive into five remarkab...

Send us Fan Mail Infant Renal Replacement Therapy Using Carpediem™: A Multicenter Observational Cohort Study from the ICONIIC Learning Network. Slagle CL, Vuong KT, Krallman KA, Casey L, Gist KM, Jetton JG, Joseph C, Luckritz K, Martin SD, Morgan J, Merrill KA, Plomaritas K, Ramirez D, Tran CL, Shin HS, Snyder AN, Van Wyk B, Yalon L, Goldstein SL, Menon S.J Pediatr. 2025 Sep 26:114838. doi: 10.101...

Send us Fan Mail Short-term and long-term effects of vitamin D supplementation for preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Shin SH, Kim HJ, Heo JS.J Perinatol. 2025 Oct 7. doi: 10.1038/s41372-025-02440-9. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41057557 Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contac...

Send us Fan Mail Nebulized nitroglycerin as an adjuvant drug in management of persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborns: a randomized controlled trial. Farag MM, Ghazal HAE, Abdel-Mohsen AM, Rezk MA.Eur J Pediatr. 2025 Sep 1;184(9):586. doi: 10.1007/s00431-025-06381-5.PMID: 40888971 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or sugge...

Send us Fan Mail Azithromycin for Prevention of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia and Other Neonatal Adverse Outcomes in Preterm Infants: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Joseph M, Murali Krishna M, Karlinksi Vizentin V, Provinciatto H, Ezenna C.Neonatology. 2025 Aug 12:1-10. doi: 10.1159/000547537. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40795809 Free article. Support the show As always, feel free t...

Send us Fan Mail Identifying optimal positive end-expiratory pressure with electrical impedance tomography guidance in severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Shui JE, LaVita CJ, Alcala GC, Nichols JH, Jassar RK, Turcu RM, Lerou PH, Cereda MF, Carroll RW, Ribeiro De Santis Santiago R, Berra L.J Perinatol. 2025 Sep 30. doi: 10.1038/s41372-025-02433-8. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41028823 Support the sh...

Send us Fan Mail Risk factors associated with the development of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants on an exclusive human milk diet: a single-center case-control study. Ailumerab H, Miller JL, DeShea L, Beasley WH, Chaaban H, Bergner EM.J Perinatol. 2025 Aug 30. doi: 10.1038/s41372-025-02401-2. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40885806 Support the show As always, feel free to send us questio...

Send us Fan Mail In this special episode recorded live at the NeoHeart Conference 2025 in San Diego, California, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Steve Abman, the Dr. John Patrick Cleary Living with Legends Keynote Address Speaker. A true leader in pediatric medicine, Dr. Abman serves as Professor of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Co-Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Program, Directo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Incubator Podcast, Dr. Mario Rüdiger, a prominent neonatologist from Germany, shares his journey into the field of neonatology, discussing the differences between European and American practices, the importance of flexibility in adopting new therapies, and the role of evidence in neonatal care. He emphasizes the significance of empowering parents in the NICU...

Send us Fan Mail In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a wide range of new research shaping neonatal practice and policy. The discussion begins with a randomized controlled trial from Korea examining antenatal corticosteroid use in twin pregnancies at risk for late preterm delivery, showing reductions in neonatal respiratory morbidity. They then turn to a meta-analysis on DHA with or...

Send us Fan Mail Support the show As 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 Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked b...

Send us Fan Mail Antenatal Corticosteroid in Twin-Pregnant Women at Risk of Late Preterm Delivery: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Lee SM, Park HS, Choi SR, Lee J, Kim HJ, Park JY, Oh KJ, Cho GJ, Oh MJ, Chung JH, Kim SM, Kim BJ, Kim SY, Hong S, Jung YM, Lee SJ, Seong JS, Kim H, Oh S, Lee J, Jin YR, Kim JH, Cho HY, Park CW, Park JS, Jun JK.JAMA Pediatr. 2025 Sep 22:e253284. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics...