Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Scott, pediatrician, neonatologist, and inventor of the Tortle. She shares how a simple observation in her Idaho practice, babies developing flat heads despite diligent parents, sparked a second career in medical device innovation. The conversation covers the evolution from the original corrective beanie to the Midliner and Transportal, the physiologic rationale for midline positioning in IVH prevention, and

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Mbozu and Shelly-Ann sit down with Isabelle Furaha, a Congolese-born mother living in Uganda, whose experience with prematurity and loss led her to create Mama Tulia Ministries. After losing a 26-week infant and later bringing home a daughter born at 33 weeks due to preeclampsia, Isabelle committed herself to supporting other mothers facing the same fear and uncertainty. What began as simple hospital visits and prayer, grew into a community-b

Hello friends 👋 Does the latest Cochrane evidence finally tip the balance in favor of erythropoiesis stimulating agents in preterm infants? In this VON Grand Rounds follow-up episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Roger Soll and Dr. Souvik Mitra to review the 2026 Cochrane systematic review on early ESA use in preterm newborns. Across 37 trials and over 6,000 infants, early ESAs consistently reduce the need for red blood cell transfusion. The review also confirms with high certaint

Hello friends 👋 Neonatal sepsis physiology, steroids, vasopressors, and moms.gov. A full week on The Incubator Journal Club. Adrianne and Nim open with a retrospective study from Toronto challenging the assumption that hypoxemic respiratory failure in septic preterm infants is driven by elevated pulmonary vascular resistance. The data points instead to left ventricular dysfunction as a key contributor, raising questions about the reflex to reach for nitric oxide first. Nim t

Hello friends 👋 In this episode of Fellows Friday, Rupa welcomes Giulia Lima, a third-year neonatal perinatal medicine fellow at Harvard and incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. Giulia walks us through her fellowship research journey, from a large epidemiological study of premature infants with congenital heart disease through the Children's Hospital Neonatal Consortium, to her Marshall Klaus Award-winning work on optimal surgical timing. The centerpiece

Hello friends 👋 This week, Leah sits down with Betsy Pilon, Executive Director of Hope for HIE, the global nonprofit dedicated to supporting families impacted by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Betsy shares her personal journey as a NICU parent, from the frightening moments before Max's birth to navigating cooling, an uncertain MRI, and a discharge with almost no guidance. Together, they explore what families need most during each phase of the HIE experience, the groundbrea

Hello friends 👋 What would it really mean to shorten neonatology fellowship training to two years? In this episode, Ben and co-host Dr. Shetal Shah sit down with three division heads, Dr. Jill Maron (Brown), Dr. Patrick McNamara (University of Iowa), and Dr. Sarah Taylor (Yale), to examine the ABP's proposed changes from the perspective of those who run major academic NICUs. From the operational and financial strain of losing an entire class of third-year fellows, to the ero

Hello friends 👋 What happens when a scientist and a clinician scientist build a lab together, and an entire career, around the same disease? On this episode of At the Bench, Misty Good and Ben Fensterheim sit down with Professors Claudia and Marcel Nold, a husband and wife team running their lab at Monash University and the Hudson Institute. They trace their path from Charles Dinarello's cytokine lab in Denver to Melbourne, where they built a research program on IL-1 biology

Hello friends 👋 What does it mean to truly improve outcomes for very low birth weight infants, and are we actually doing it? In this episode, Daphna sits down with Dr. Joseph Kaempf, neonatologist and Medical Director of Value Research and Innovation at Providence Health System in Oregon, to examine some uncomfortable truths about neonatal quality improvement. Dr. Kaempf shares findings from a study spanning 16 NICUs over 14 years showing that composite morbidity outcomes ha

Hello friends 👋 Phototherapy duration, jaundice and UTIs, extended CPAP, and The Pitt. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club. Ben opens with a nationwide Swedish cohort study from JAMA Network Open examining phototherapy duration in nearly 5,000 very preterm infants. Longer phototherapy was not significantly associated with late neonatal mortality, but six to seven days was associated with significantly higher rates of severe neonatal morbidity. With 95% of the cohort re