Approach improves hospital care for newborns

A team of researchers has received a $1.35 million grant to study how electronic medical records might help hospitals better treat severely ill newborns. One focus of the initiative is using statistical analysis of health data from current and past newborns to predict which babies might be at a higher risk of infection. Doctors will be able to decide how to treat the baby, depending on how serious the risk is. Hospitals will also be able to use statistical risk analysis to determine whether they are equipped to treat a sick newborn or should have them transferred to another facility. Yet another benefit would be to help physicians decide whether expensive, painful tests are truly necessary. The researchers, who are affiliated with Kaiser Permanente and University of California at Santa Cruz, will begin by studying paper and electronic data from 340,000 newborns at hospitals in California and Boston. They expect to have developed the planned statistical tools within three to five years.

To learn more about this research:
- read this article in Medical News Today