PPADS: Physician-PArent Decision-Support for Neonatal Intensive Care

• Published in: Studies in health technology and informatics Vol. 192; p. 23
• Main Authors: Frize, Monique, Bariciak, Erika, Gilchrist, Jeff
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 2013
• Subjects: Decision Support Systems, Clinical - organization & administration; Health Records, Personal; Humans; Intensive Care, Neonatal - methods; Medical Records Systems, Computerized - organization & administration; Ontario; Parental Notification; Parents; Risk Assessment; Software; Software Design; Ontario
• ISSN: 0926-9630
• DOI: 10.3233/978-1-61499-289-9-23

Family-centered care is becoming the new standard for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients. In support of this, we developed the Physician PArent Decision Support System (PPADS), which provides clinical updates and predictions of clinical outcomes for infants in the NICU to the neonatologists, and provides an aid to parents for making difficult decisions on the direction of care of their infant with the health care team. The tool may lead to earlier intervention, better allocation of resources, and reduction of the negative outcomes. The tool underwent a usability study with 8 parents whose infant survived the NICU stay and 5 neonatologists. Both parents and physicians thought the tool was easy to use, useful, and would help improve team communication. The next usability study will be with parents whose infant died while in the NICU, and then conduct a randomized prospective study with parents who have a sick infant admitted to the NICU.