INDUSTRY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Revolutionizing NICU Journeys: How NICU2Home Supports Clinicians and Families
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In a recent AngelEye-sponsored webinar, Jaylee Hilliard, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP and Dr. Craig Garfield presented the features, benefits, and extensive research behind the new NICU navigation and discharge coordination solution. The NICU2Home solution aims to enhance neonatal care throughout the NICU journey and post-discharge by educating and empowering families with innovative technology. The session offered an in-depth look at how this solution will improve patient outcomes by supporting NICU families and clinicians. The NICU2Home solution resolves the discharge dilemma and ensures a smooth transition for infants going home.
AngelEye Health’s mission is to equip care teams, empower families, and improve overall outcomes. This mission is achieved through specialized technology solutions like AngelEye’s CameraSystem, MilkTracker, and NICU2Home.
Built on a Strong Foundation
Two strategic alliances are the backbone of AngelEye’s new, evidence-based NICU navigation and discharge coordination software. An exclusive partnership to support the distribution and implementation of The National Perinatal Association’s Interdisciplinary Guidelines and Recommendations for NICU Discharge Preparation and Transition Planning was penned in 2022 to ensure consistent and efficient comprehensive discharge preparation and transition planning for NICU infants and their families. The acquisition of NICU2Home was completed in the spring of this year, accelerating the development of a comprehensive solution to revolutionize the NICU discharge process for care teams and families.
The Guidelines, supported by AngelEye Health, led to an exploration to evaluate if there was a need to develop software to support their implementation. AngelEye Health conducted extensive research and interviews identifying recurring challenges in NICU discharge processes. The feedback from healthcare leaders, bedside staff, and families revealed a consistent theme: the current discharge process is often fragmented, stressful, and inefficient, leading to increased costs and suboptimal outcomes for families and infants.
The NICU2Home journey began in 2011 when Dr. Garfield noticed parents consistently using their smartphones in the NICU. This observation sparked the idea of utilizing parental downtime, such as when babies are sleeping, to provide parents with valuable information and support through a mobile app. The goal was to empower parents and support them in a way that also allowed the healthcare team to work smarter, not harder.
The research, led by Dr. Garfield and his colleague, Dr. Young Lee, co-founder, and co-principal investigator, included key research projects to evaluate the NICU2Home app. A randomized controlled trial that included parents of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants reported increased parental confidence and discharge preparedness after using the NICU2Home app. The study also noted a decrease in the length of stay for these infants.
An additional study found consistent improvement in parental self-efficacy for parents of infants less than 37 weeks’ gestation. This finding indicates that the app was beneficial across different groups of preterm infants. The study, which included three different NICUs, found that African American families who used the app reported greater social support than those who did not. This finding suggests that the app helped to bridge the gap and provide more inclusive support for historically marginalized families.
A full compendium of research and articles can be found here.
Key Features of NICU2Home
Below are detailed features of the NICU2Home app, with explanations of how each one addresses specific challenges faced by families and healthcare providers in the NICU:
- Dynamic Roadmap: This feature provides a visual representation of the baby’s progress and readiness for discharge. Key milestones indicating discharge readiness, such as oral feeding percentages, temperature regulation, and the number of days since the infant’s last apnea or bradycardia event, are clearly displayed. The Dynamic Roadmap leverages electronic health record (EHR) details to help parents understand their baby’s NICU journey. It encourages families to actively participate in their infant’s care by displaying and proactively communicating key tasks, such as bringing in the infant’s car seat. This comprehensive approach ensures parents are well-informed and engaged throughout their baby’s NICU stay.
- Actionable Surveys: The digital surveys assess each family’s unique experiences and needs, assisting the care team in identifying and addressing any issues proactively. The unit-specific surveys cover a range of topics, including postpartum depression, social determinants of health, family perceptions of being regularly updated, and overall family well-being. The responses are displayed on a clinical dashboard, allowing the care team to identify families that might benefit from additional support.
- Educational Resource Delivery: The app delivers automated and tailored educational content based on each baby’s unique clinical progress. The navigation and all of the educational resources and content are available in more than 100 languages. These resources utilize health literacy best practices to ensure that families are better able to understand and use important health information.
- Aligning Schedules: Families can utilize this feature to communicate their plans and caregiving activities with the care team, promoting better coordination. For example, parents can indicate when they plan to arrive at the NICU to participate in specific tasks like attending rounds, doing kangaroo care, or bringing in breastmilk. This tool encourages parental engagement, minimizes their altered parental role, and provides families an easily accessible way to communicate with the care team.
- Secure Messaging: The app offers HIPAA-compliant two-way asynchronous communication between families and the care team. The unit-based, modifiable feature enhances interaction and support between the care team and families by allowing parents to ask questions, receive updates, and share their concerns while minimizing the need for additional phone calls.
- Data Visualization: The app provides families daily updates on key metrics, such as the baby’s weight, feeding amounts, and the number of apnea or bradycardia events. The information is updated daily and helps parents stay informed and engaged in their baby’s care, reducing their anxiety and improving their overall experience.
Impact on Organizational Priorities
The NICU2Home app was developed to align with key organizational priorities, emphasizing its potential to:
- Reduce Costs: By enhancing staff efficiency and reducing the infant’s length of stay and readmissions, the app enables NICUs to manage resources more effectively. The streamlined communication and coordination features also lighten the workload for healthcare providers, allowing them to concentrate on critical tasks.
- Improve Outcomes: The app increases parental confidence and engagement, which are crucial for better infant and family outcomes. The comprehensive educational resources and proactive support ensure that families are well-prepared to confidently care for their babies in the NICU and after discharge.
- Enhance Family Experience: The app enhances the overall family experience by offering improved education, engagement, and empowerment. Personalized support and clear communication boost families’ confidence, minimize the disruption of their parental role, and reduce anxiety. These factors lead to higher parental satisfaction with the care their infant receives and significantly enhance their overall experience and familial outcomes.
Conclusion
The NICU2Home solution is a transformative tool in neonatal care, addressing critical challenges in NICU navigation and discharge. By enhancing family engagement, improving outcomes, and aligning with organizational priorities, it offers a comprehensive, evidence-based solution that supports families through their NICU journey and beyond. Its ability to reduce costs, boost parental confidence, and provide inclusive support makes it an invaluable asset for NICUs. Schedule a call for a detailed discussion, or visit NICU2Home’s web page to explore how NICU2Home can revolutionize neonatal care in your unit. Embrace the future of neonatal care with NICU2Home and make a lasting difference for infants and their families.
About the Experts
Jaylee Hilliard, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP, the Senior Director of Clinical Strategy at AngelEye Health, focuses on supporting hospital and health system partnerships to deliver specialized patient and family support through state-of-the-art technology. After becoming a NICU mom three years ago, she has become even more passionate about improving parental engagement and positively impacting the outcomes of infants in the NICU and their families.
Dr. Craig Garfield is a professor of pediatrics and a neonatal hospitalist with over 25 years of experience. He is the co-founder and co-principal investigator of the NICU2Home smartphone app and has a notable background in pediatric research and family health.
