February 12-13, 2009

Background

This workshop is organized to stimulate an academic and industry partnership that will lead to the development of safe and effective instrumentation for use in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). It is hoped that such advances will help optimize neonatal care and minimize mortality and short- and long-term disabilities. The presentations and discussions will be summarized in a manuscript for publication in a refereed journal with readership in both the bioengineering and the biomedical community, further stimulating research in this field. The topic areas for discussion are:

• Cardiopulmonary Issues
  • What are the available techniques and their limitations for measuring and/or estimating the following cardio-pulmonary functions:
  • Cardiac output;
  • Systemic vascular resistance/systemic blood pressure;
  • Pulmonary vascular resistance/pulmonary artery pressure;
  • Peripheral perfusion; and
  • Intravascular volume status?
  • What new and evolving technologies can be stimulated to help bedside assessment of pulmonary function tests? What new and evolving technologies can be stimulated to bridge the existing gaps?
  • What are the possibilities and limitations of the evolving technologies in monitoring PCO2 and PO2 noninvasively?
  • What information is available about the development of non-radiographic techniques for assessing endotracheal tube placement?
    
    
• Cerebrovascular Issues
  • What are the available techniques and their limitations for assessing global and regional cerebral blood flow, oxygenation, and metabolism?
  • What are the limitations of assessing cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation?
  • What are the potentials for optical imaging of the brain?
  • What technologic advances are needed to assess the impact of physiologic state or medical/surgical interventions on brain metabolism and function?
    
    
• Metabolic Assessment and Monitoring Issues: What are the advances and challenges in non-invasive monitoring of systemic metabolites and serum/plasma biochemical levels (e.g., glucose, lactate, pyruvate, ketones)?
  
  
• Neonatal Infection Issues
  • What are the new directions for rapid diagnosis of neonatal sepsis?
  • How can clinicians diagnose systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in prenatal and postnatal life?
  • What new approaches can be used to develop instruments/catheters that will eliminate or substantially reduce the possibility of health-care associated infections in high risk infants?
  • Does a technology exist to reduce bacteremia and/or fungemia?
    
    

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