Telemedicine consultations help babies breathe easily

Time is of the essence when newborn babies experience respiratory problems. For rural or unequipped hospitals, these high-risk births are especially challenging. Telemedicine is one avenue for these hospitals to consult physicians from all over the world and provide timely care to these tiny patients.

Approximately 10 percent of all newborns needed respiratory assistance, meaning hospitals big or small need to be prepared for such cases. Researchers from Mayo Clinic set out to evaluate if the use of telemedicine consultations had a positive effect on hospitals ability to treat these newborns.

"Following a complicated delivery, a newborn's outcome is associated with the quality of care provided during the first minutes of life," said Jennifer Fang, MD, a Mayo Clinic fellow in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and one of the study's authors. "Because of this reason, it is critical to understand how telemedicine can be used to positively impact those outcomes."

In a 20-month study at Mayo Clinic's Division of Neonatal Medicine, researchers included six health systems to provide with newborn telemedicine consultations. In the 84 telemedicine consultations that took place, healthcare providers expressed positive reviews on the teamwork and impact the consultations had on patient outcomes and safety.

"These results speak to the acceptability and clinical impact of this type of telemedicine project in community hospitals," said Fang. "The enhanced access to neonatologists, who could remotely assess the newborn and guide the local care team through the resuscitation, allowed one-third of the babies to stay with their families in the local hospital. This allowed the patients to receive the correct level of care in the right location—increasing the value of care. Also, the potential cost savings can be substantial. Other research has shown that teamwork and communication are critical during neonatal emergencies. We wanted to assess how telemedicine affected teamwork and communication."