Babies on camera
A video system lets parents watch their newborns from anywhere, at any time.
If you’re the parent of a newborn with special medical issues, here’s your ultimate “reality TV”: a camera system that, starting in 2014, will stream live video of your infant from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital.
Some babies born prematurely or with special challenges have to stay in the NICU for weeks or even months before going home. Parents are welcome any time in the Saint Peter’s unit, but for many parents the demands of life—other children, jobs, maintenance of the home—often prevent being with the baby in person. Now any webenabled phone, tablet or computer willallow Mom or Dad to securely check in on the newborn at any time, 24/7.
The technology that makes this possible is called NICVIEW , and the Saint Peter’s NICU is the first in New Jersey to have a fully equipped unit, says Mark Hiatt, M.D., director of Neonatology and of the NICU . It will cost about $100,000, paid for with a grant from The Provident Bank Foundation. “Our philosophy is that parents should feel like partners in their child’s care,” says Dr. Hiatt. “This allows us to extend that partnership visually, bringing us to a new level in parental communications.”
Chris Martin, president of The Provident Bank Foundation, had a son born prematurely who was kept for a while in a NICU . “There were many times when I was working and was unable to visit my son,” he says. “That experience made me realize that there are few greater needs for parents in that situation than to have a way to connect.”
Each of the 54 stations in the NICU will have its own camera. Parents can opt in or out of the system, and those who opt in can allow access to the video feed for whomever they’d like— say, grandparents in another state, siblings or husbands serving in the military overseas. The technology is fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HI PAA ), and the videos are encrypted and password-protected to ensure privacy. “Our security is similar to that used on banking websites,” says Blake Rutherford, president of Healthcare Observation Systems, the NICVIEW vendor.
Each camera has an on/off switch so that any clinician can put it into privacy mode if the baby is undergoing a sensitive treatment. “An image pops up and says that the nurse is caring for the baby now, so check back shortly,” Rutherford says.
William Rears, chief technology officer at Saint Peter’s, knows from firsthand experience how important this access can be. His daughter spent about a week in a NICU in 1995. “Her problems were minor compared with those of others in the unit and she’s fine, but it tears at your heart to have to leave your baby in the hospital,” says Rears. In recent years he’s been looking for the right technology for such a video feed, and the NICVIEW system fit all his criteria: 24/7 access, a help desk to ensure that things are working properly, unlimited access for as many viewers as desired, and no software or app downloads required. “It even lets nurses leave electronic ‘sticky notes’ for parents with messages such as ‘Hi, Mom! I just had a bath!’” he says. “Any parent who ever had a baby in the NICU would want this.”
“Imagine that a mom had twins and could take one home but the other had to stay in the hospital,” says Dr. Hiatt. “Think how she’d be pulled between her babies! With NICVIEW she can care for her infant at home and still stay in touch with the one here.”
—D.L.
