3 Innovation in health at the beginning of life

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year. This means that 1 in every 13 babies who are born in the UK will be premature, i.e. born before the 37th week of pregnancy (Bliss, n.d.).

There have been many advances in neonatal technology in the last few decades which have saved the lives of premature babies. However, the focus for innovation in the healthcare of babies has been directed primarily towards health professionals and ways of improving the delivery of care. Parents, therefore, have been insufficiently consulted about developing innovation to improve babies’ health. To bring patients into the equation, NHS Fife developed an innovation with the intention of changing this. An interactive virtual platform was developed to enable parents and their families, including children and grandparents, to become much more active in the care of their sick or premature baby while they are on the neonatal intensive care unit (Kimber, 2015).

This innovation is the focus of the next activity.

Activity 3 My Little One

Watch the short video about NHS Fife’s initiative, called My Little One. This will help you to answer the following questions. Provide your answers in the box below.

Please note: due to the nature of the recording, you may find the audio quality to be noticeably poor. If this is the case, use the subtitles and transcript provided.

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Transcript: Video 2 NHS Fife’s My Little One

LISA HALLADAY

Hi. I'm Lisa Halladay. I'm an eHealth Delivery Specialist for NHS Fife. This project's called My Little One. I worked with Digital Health and Care Institute and IC24. This product, basically, it brings mothers closer to their sick or premature babies. It is the ability to have a camera on an incubator, which links to an iPad that the mother receives upon the birth of her baby, where they cannot go down to the special care unit and see their baby for themselves.

People interested in this product is anybody who has either delivered a premature baby or one that's in a special care unit. It's something that's very, very simple, but it's very, very beneficial to both parents and families with premature babies. As you can see here, this is what we have. We have an incubator with a camera that sits at the end. And the mother receives an iPad upon the birth of the baby.

The main features is exactly what it is. It's a real-time feed of the baby. There is a slight delay upon the video of around a minute, and this means that there is a capability for the nurse. If they're going to carry out a treatment on the baby or anything, they can flick a switch, and the mum gets a comfort message saying that the video feed has been stopped. But it's a continuous feed of the baby basically.

Nothing is stored. Everything is all secure. It is basically a feed from the camera to the server from the technical perspective and then to [INAUDIBLE]. If I had one message about it. It's brilliant. It's absolutely fantastic. It is something from any health perspective that delivers everything. It delivers care. It's something that's patient centric.

It's just something that's so simple, but yet so efficient. Personally, I think every neonatal unit in Scotland should have that. And we would be more than happy for anybody to come over to Fife and see it. And if you want to get it, either contact myself, Lisa Halladay, or if you want to contact the Digital Health and Care Institute or IC24.

End transcript: Video 2 NHS Fife’s My Little One

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Video 2 NHS Fife’s My Little One

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1. What is the technology for and how does it work?
2. Why is it so important for parents and families?

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Discussion

1. Not only are parents more involved in the neonatal unit, but they can also be reassured by having virtual contact with their baby. My Little One brings parents closer to their baby through the use of tablets and smartphones. A webcam is attached to the incubator and a real-time video is transmitted to the device held by the parents.
2. This innovation enables parents to have virtual contact with their baby which would otherwise be limited. It is much better than a still photograph as the tablet transmits moving and real-time images of the baby. This is particularly important for mothers who may be recovering from a Caesarean section on the post-natal ward.