iNICQ Improving Care for Neonatal Encephalopathy

A Vermont Oxford Network Internet Collaborative

We are pleased to announce Improving Care for Neonatal Encephalopathy, the next in a series of successful iNICQ Internet Improvement Collaboratives. Designed for multidisciplinary NICU teams, the series will help your team:

• Identify infants with neonatal encephalopathy reliably
• Diagnose and treat neonatal seizures appropriately
• Use brain monitoring and neuroimaging effectively
• Understand if and how to use hypothermia in your NICU
• Address follow up and services for infants and families
• Receive continuing education credits, CMEs and Nursing Contact Hours

The series will be an interactive, working collaborative, not just a series of passive lectures. Prior to each Internet session, your team will receive structured prework to help you prepare. The Internet sessions will include plenary presentations by expert faculty and case studies from real NICU teams like yours. Each session will last 90 minutes. Teams watch the presentations over the Internet and listen to and participate in the discussion via a speakerphone. Teams of any size are welcome. Larger teams generally meet in a conference room where the presentation is shown using a digital projector. Following each session we ask you to schedule an additional 30 minutes to stay together and work on structured exercises designed to move your improvement work forward.

A dedicated email discussion list open to all participants will provide an additional forum for discussion and faculty support.

In 2006, the Vermont Oxford Network hosted a previous iNICQ series on Neonatal Encephalopathy. Multimedia recordings of those sessions are available on the Vermont Oxford Network Internet site at: Encephalopathy Multimedia Presentations

The current series will include new information in this rapidly evolving field and is suitable for teams at all NICUs providing care for infants with encephalopathy regardless of whether they are providing hypothermic therapy. We look forward to working with you and your team to improve the care of infants with encephalopathy and their families!