IWK to Pilot New Technology for NICU Families

Care providers, researchers and parents at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax have joined forces to develop ChezNICU, a secure, virtual environment that will link neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patient rooms with family homes and caregivers on as well as offsite. The IWK is ready to pilot and advance the project in 2016 with new support from the Government of Canada. The project team includes Dr. Patrick McGrath, Integrated Vice President of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Translation at the IWK and Nova Scotia Health Authority; Michelle LeDrew, Director of the Maternal Newborn Program at the IWK; and scientific lead Marsha Campbell-Yeo, an assistant professor at the Dalhousie School of Nursing and a neonatal nurse practitioner and clinician scientist at the IWK. Through over 25 years of caring for babies and their families in the NICU, Dr. Campbell-Yeo has spearheaded extensive R&D aimed at improving care for at-risk infants targeting ways to alleviate pain, stress and optimize neurodevelopment. The idea for ChezNICU arose from conversations with NICU parents seeking ways to maintain contact with and take a more active role in the care of their newborns. Read full article here.