Send us Fan Mail What would it really mean to shorten neonatology fellowship training to two years? In this episode, Ben and co-host Dr. Shetal Shah sit down with three division heads, Dr. Jill Maron (Brown), Dr. Patrick McNamara (University of Iowa), and Dr. Sarah Taylor (Yale), to examine the ABP's proposed changes from the perspective of those who run major academic NICUs. From the operational and financial strain of losing an entire class of third-year fellows, to the erosion of scholarly de...
Jun 22, 2026•45 min•Season 5Ep. 131
Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to truly improve outcomes for very low birth weight infants, and are we actually doing it? In this episode, Daphna sits down with Dr. Joseph Kaempf, neonatologist and Medical Director of Value Research and Innovation at Providence Health System in Oregon, to examine some uncomfortable truths about neonatal quality improvement. Dr. Kaempf shares findings from a study spanning 16 NICUs over 14 years showing that composite morbidity outcomes have remained flat whi...
Jun 16, 2026•49 min•Season 5Ep. 130
Send us Fan Mail Phototherapy duration, jaundice and UTIs, extended CPAP, and The Pitt. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club. Ben opens with a nationwide Swedish cohort study from JAMA Network Open examining phototherapy duration in nearly 5,000 very preterm infants. Longer phototherapy was not significantly associated with late neonatal mortality, but six to seven days was associated with significantly higher rates of severe neonatal morbidity. With 95% of the cohort receiving phototherapy...
Jun 13, 2026•1 hr 30 min•Season 5Ep. 129
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli discuss the cultural phenomenon of HBO Max’s new hit medical drama, The Pitt. Sparked by an insightful critique in The New Yorker by Dr. Dhruv Khullar, they dive into why this Noah Wyle-led series is capturing the attention of millions of Americans, including healthcare workers and patients alike. They explore how the show’s unflinching portrayal of systemic failures, from ER overcrowding to uninsured patients leaving against medical advi...
Jun 12, 2026•20 min•Season 5Ep. 128
Send us Fan Mail Is five days of antibiotics enough to treat a urinary tract infection in a NICU infant? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a single-center study from Nationwide Children's Hospital examining adherence and safety of a five-day antibiotic treatment guideline for culture and urinalysis-proven UTIs in the NICU. Among 77 infants with 93 bacterial UTIs, the five-day course was associated with a 1% failure rate, defined as reinitiation of antibiotics within seven days ...
Jun 11, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 127
Send us Fan Mail What happens to intermittent hypoxemia when you keep a stable preterm infant on CPAP for two extra weeks? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a secondary analysis from the Journal of Pediatrics by Mamidi and McEvoy. Among 95 infants randomized to either two additional weeks of bubble CPAP on room air or discontinued CPAP, those in the extended CPAP group experienced significantly fewer intermittent hypoxemia episodes (57.6 versus 151.7), higher baseline saturatio...
Jun 10, 2026•19 min•Season 5Ep. 126
Send us Fan Mail In this Journal Club episode, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from Istanbul examining clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound factors associated with UTI in neonates hospitalized for unexplained hyperbilirubinemia. Among 96 term and near-term infants, 31% had culture-proven UTIs, a striking prevalence. Pathological renal ultrasound findings were independently associated with UTI, with affected neonates 4.6 times more likely to have a concurrent infection. Notably, stand...
Jun 09, 2026•16 min•Season 5Ep. 125
Send us Fan Mail In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a nationwide Swedish cohort study examining the association between phototherapy duration and neonatal outcomes in very preterm infants (22 to 31 weeks). The study’s primary outcome, late neonatal mortality on days 8 to 27, was not significantly associated with phototherapy duration. However, longer phototherapy exposure was associated with increased odds of severe neonatal morbidity, including IVH and BPD, in infants born at 2...
Jun 08, 2026•24 min•Season 5Ep. 124
Send us Fan Mail What if closing a PDA could be done at the bedside in under 10 minutes, without transporting a fragile preterm infant to the cath lab? Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Nicklaus Children's Heart Institute, joins us to discuss the evolution of transcatheter PDA closure in extremely preterm infants. We cover how bedside procedures protect the most vulnerable neonates, which infants are most likely to benefit from closure, the learning curve and complicatio...
Jun 01, 2026•48 min•Season 5Ep. 123
Send us Fan Mail Opioid withdrawal dosing, intranasal breast milk, human milk fortification in Japan, neonatal dysphagia, and vaccine policy. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club. Ben opens with the Optimized NOW trial in JAMA: symptom-based dosing reduced time to medical readiness for discharge by nearly two and a half days in NOWS infants managed with Eat Sleep Console, and allowed 65% of pharmacologically treated infants to avoid scheduled opioids entirely. Daphna reviews a small RCT out...
May 30, 2026•1 hr 39 min•Season 5Ep. 122
Send us Fan Mail In this fast-paced episode of Neo News, Eli and Ben tackle the rapidly shifting landscape of vaccine regulation and economics in the US. They discuss recent political maneuvers surrounding the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and how expanding liability could quietly push manufacturers out of the market entirely. The hosts also examine the FDA's recent hesitation to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine, highlighting how these administrative roadblocks threaten the fin...
May 29, 2026•20 min•Season 5Ep. 121
Send us Fan Mail How often are we missing dysphagia in our most vulnerable NICU patients? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from the Journal of Perinatology examining the incidence and risk factors of dysphagia confirmed by flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) in very preterm and very low birth weight infants. Among infants showing persistent feeding difficulties at 38 weeks post-menstrual age, laryngeal penetration was detected in all in...
May 28, 2026•19 min•Season 5Ep. 120
Send us Fan Mail What does it take to turn a single struggling baby into a national standard of care? In this episode, Ben sits down with Professor Katsumi Mizuno (Showa Medical University) and Dr. Melinda Elliott (Chief Medical Officer, Prolacta Bioscience) to discuss the landmark Jasmine Trial, the first randomized controlled trial of an exclusive human milk diet (EHMD) in Japan. The results: significantly better weight and length gain, fewer antibiotic days, and improved feeding tolerance in ...
May 27, 2026•34 min•Season 5Ep. 119
Send us Fan Mail Japan has some of the best survival rates for extremely preterm infants in the world, yet feeding practices there look very different from what many of us are used to. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben reviews the JASMINE trial, a multicenter phase three randomized controlled trial evaluating an exclusive human milk diet compared to a standard cow milk-based diet in very low birth weight infants in Japan. Infants on an exclusive human milk diet gained weight significantly fas...
May 27, 2026•24 min•Season 5Ep. 118
Send us Fan Mail Could putting a few drops of breast milk in a preterm infant's nose actually improve cerebral oxygenation? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a randomized controlled trial from the European Journal of Pediatrics investigating the physiologic effects of intranasal expressed breast milk (EBM) administration in preterm infants. The study found that infants receiving 0.2 mL of fresh breast milk intranasally three times daily showed significantly higher cerebral oxygenat...
May 26, 2026•23 min•Season 5Ep. 117
Send us Fan Mail One infant is diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome every 27 minutes, and rates are rising. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna review the Optimized NOW randomized clinical trial, a landmark multicenter study published in JAMA. The trial compared symptom-based dosing, a single opioid dose given when a withdrawal threshold is met against the traditional scheduled opioid taper in infants managed with Eat Sleep Console. The results are striking: symptom-bas...
May 25, 2026•25 min•Season 5Ep. 116
Send us Fan Mail The NICU is one of the loudest environments a newborn will ever experience, yet it is also where the most vulnerable infants spend their earliest, most developmentally critical days. In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Gabby Daltoso and Sophie Ishiwari, co-founders of the Sonura Beanie. Their device tackles two pressing NICU challenges at once: harmful noise exposure and disrupted parental connection. By embedding a low-pass filtration system tuned to the ...
May 22, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 115
Send us Fan Mail Every neonatologist has built a protocol or written a guideline, and most have done it completely alone. In this episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Christina Muffy Sollinger (UC Davis) and Dr. Sarvin Ghavam (CHOP), the co-founders of NeoGuide, a national collaborative dedicated to connecting clinicians around the shared work of clinical guidelines and practice pathways. Born from a single email that broke a listserv and generated over 120 responses overnight, NeoGuide has grown int...
May 18, 2026•44 min•Season 5Ep. 114
Send us Fan Mail Cerebral oxygenation, staffing economics, delivery room scoring, neurodevelopmental prognostication, and public health — a full week on the Incubator Journal Club. Ben walks through the NIRTURE trial, a single-device RCT testing cerebral oximetry-guided care in infants born under 29 weeks. The intervention dramatically reduced the burden of cerebral hypoxia and hyperoxia compared to standard care. Secondary clinical outcomes were neutral and neurodevelopmental follow-up is still...
May 16, 2026•1 hr 25 min•Season 5Ep. 113
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli tackle the recent, quiet—but massive—public health funding cuts implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services. With $600 million pulled back from four targeted states and additional CDC block grants eliminated, they discuss the severe domestic implications for local health departments, HIV/STI surveillance, and lead poisoning prevention. They also zoom out to examine the global health consequences of the US withdrawing from t...
May 15, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 112
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Journal Club, we wrap up a marathon recording session with a deep dive into the world of neonatal neuroprognostication. Daphna reviews a systematic review and meta-analysis from Pediatric Neurology that evaluates whether combining EEG and MRI provides better answers for families of preterm infants. While MRI remains a powerful tool for structural assessment, the data suggests that adding the functional insights of EEG significantly boosts specificity, particul...
May 14, 2026•13 min•Season 5Ep. 111
Send us Fan Mail Ben kicks things off with a major career update before we dive into a critical study from JAMA Network Open. We explore the predictive value of the five minute Apgar score when combined with umbilical artery pH in very preterm infants. While the Apgar score was originally designed for term babies, this analysis of the EPICE cohort reveals its enduring utility even in the smallest patients. We discuss how these two measures interact, which one "wins" when they conflict, and why t...
May 13, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 110
Send us Fan Mail Is your NICU considering the shift to 24 hour in house attending coverage? In this episode of Journal Club, we explore a provocative brief communication from the Journal of Perinatology. Ben and Daphna discuss the impact of moving from home call to on site presence at UC Davis. While the change was intended to improve patient care, the data reveals a surprising 15 percent decrease in work RVUs. We examine how proactive weaning and bedside presence might actually lower billing le...
May 12, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 109
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna dive into the results of the NIRTURE trial, recently published in JAMA Network Open. Building on the lessons of SafeBoosC 3 , the NIRTURE investigators aimed to reduce the burden of cerebral hypoxia and hyperoxia in extremely preterm infants using a standardized NIRS guided treatment protocol. While the study showed a dramatic improvement in maintaining cerebral normoxia, driven largely by a reduction in hyperoxia , the clinical ou...
May 11, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 108
Send us Fan Mail The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) recently announced a move toward competency-based subspecialty training that would shorten fellowships — including neonatology — from three years to two. The proposal has sent shockwaves through the training community. In this episode, Daphna sits down with three leaders from the Organization of Neonatal Perinatal Training Program Directors (ONTPD): Dr. Patrick Myers from Northwestern, Dr. Heather French from the Children's Hospital of Phil...
May 10, 2026•47 min•Season 5Ep. 107
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Daniel Rauch, PAS 2026 program chair, joins Ben for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off a conference of this scale — and what he's learned from this year's record-breaking attendance in Boston. He reflects on the sessions that packed rooms beyond capacity, from the Tiny Baby Collaborative to AI in pediatrics, and shares what's on the horizon for PAS 2027 in Minneapolis and PAS 2028 in Vancouver. He also makes the case for why PAS remains uniquely valuable f...
Apr 29, 2026•12 min•Season 5Ep. 106
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Benny Rossner, PGY-2 pediatrics resident and veteran physician recruiter with 15 years of experience building clinical teams across the country, joins Ben and Rupa for a candid look at the neonatology workforce from a side of the conversation trainees rarely hear. He breaks down why demand for neonatologists is rising — sicker and younger patients, a shrinking APP pipeline into high-acuity specialties, and hospitals stretching budgets on locums before finally raising permane...
Apr 29, 2026•12 min•Season 5Ep. 105
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Gabriel Altit and Daniela Villegas from the NeoCardioLab at Montreal join Ben and Rupa to reflect on a packed PAS filled with hemodynamics science — from pulmonary hypertension phenotyping to heart-brain interactions in the golden hour. Dr. Altit makes the case that just as neonatology learned to embrace gentle ventilation, it is time to think about gentle hemodynamics — intervening thoughtfully, recognizing different clinical phenotypes, and knowing when to remove intervent...
Apr 29, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 104
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Kristen Leeman and Dr. Jonathan Levin join Ben to debrief a packed interactive session on tracheostomy timing and counseling for babies with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Using iterative cases and live audience polling, they mapped the wide variability in practice across the country — finding rough consensus that tracheostomy conversations become likely around 44 to 48 weeks post-menstrual age for intubated infants and 48 to 52 weeks for those on non-invasive vent...
Apr 29, 2026•13 min•Season 5Ep. 103
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, division chief at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's Hospital and one of neonatology's most prolific investigators, joins Ben to share what's keeping him busy — 14 active clinical trials including studies on IGF-1 for lung injury prevention, oral insulin for weight gain, and the upcoming phase three trial of aerosolized surfactant. He reflects on what has sustained his passion through decades of work, from training a third of California's neonatologists to ...
Apr 29, 2026•12 min•Season 5Ep. 102
