Hello Friends 👋 The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) recently announced a move toward competency-based subspecialty training that would shorten fellowships — including neonatology — from three years to two. The proposal has sent shockwaves through the training community. In this episode, Daphna sits down with three leaders from the Organization of Neonatal Perinatal Training Program Directors (ONTPD): Dr. Patrick Myers from Northwestern, Dr. Heather French from the Childre

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, we explore a decade-long journey to transform newborn care in Ghana's Hohoe region, focusing on family systems of care, cross-cultural research collaborations, and innovative training approaches. In this episode we explore • The healthcare landscape for small and sick newborns in Ghana's Volta region • The concept and application of family systems care versus family-centered care • Development and adaptation of practical tools like genograms

Hello friends 👋 Victoria Varela-Hefty, director of programs at ICU Baby and mother of James, a 28-weeker born in 2024, shares her NICU journey with honesty and grace. From a high-risk pregnancy complicated by Sjögren's syndrome and preeclampsia to an emergency classical C-section, inadequate postoperative pain management, and a cardiac complication that kept her hospitalized for eight days — Victoria reflects on what it felt like to navigate her own medical crisis while her

Hello friends 👋 The Incubator Podcast is back on the floor for day three and final day of PAS 2026 in Boston. Ben Courchia and Daphna Yasova Barbeau are closing out the conference with even more conversations from the researchers, clinicians, and innovators who are shaping the future of neonatology. The science doesn't stop and neither do we. Catch all of these episodes on both our podcast channel and our YouTube channel, wherever you prefer to listen or watch. Check out mor

Hello friends 👋 The Incubator Podcast is back on the floor for day two of PAS 2026 in Boston. Ben and Daphna continue their conversations with the researchers, clinicians, and advocates shaping the future of neonatology — from cutting-edge science on neonatal hematology and opioid-exposed infants to some of the most powerful parent perspectives we have ever had in the booth. If yesterday set the tone, today raises the bar. Catch all of these episodes on both our podcast chan

Hello friends 👋 The Incubator Podcast is back on the floor for day two of PAS 2026 in Boston. Ben and Daphna continue their conversations with the researchers, clinicians, and advocates shaping the future of neonatology — from cutting-edge science on neonatal hematology and opioid-exposed infants to some of the most powerful parent perspectives we have ever had in the booth. If yesterday set the tone, today raises the bar. Catch all of these episodes on both our podcast chan

Hello friends 👋 The Incubator Podcast is proud to bring you exclusive coverage of PAS 2026 in Boston, one of the most anticipated gatherings in pediatric and neonatal medicine. Today marks day one of the conference. Ben and Daphna are already on the floor sitting down with leading researchers, clinicians, and innovators shaping the future of neonatology. These special episodes explore the latest advances in neonatal brain injury, cell therapy, family centered care, and much

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Dr. Callie Marshall, a third-year neonatology fellow at Washington University, shares her journey through medical school and fellowship, highlighting her research on racial variations in neonatal care. She discusses her mentorship experience, emphasizing the importance of finding a mentor who aligns with one's interests and values. Dr. Marshall elaborates on her research project that investigates the accuracy of near-infrared spectroscopy (N

Breaking news from the American Board of Pediatrics: a proposal to move all 15 pediatric subspecialties to a two-year, competency-based training model by July 2028 just dropped, and Ben and Daphna are breaking it down in real time. What does shifting from time-based to EPA-grounded training mean for neonatology fellows? Is two years actually enough? What happens to scholarship, research exposure, and the physician-scientist pipeline? And should neonatology take this reshuffli

Hello friends 👋 In this episode of At the Bench, Misty Good and David McCulley interview Dr. Christopher Thom, a neonatologist and leader blood lineage development. Dr. Thom discusses his training in hematology research and what inspired him to build an outstanding research program studying platelet biology and how his research is being translated to change transfusion care for patients. The conversation emphasizes the importance of collaboration in neonatology physician-sc

Hello friends 👋 The transfusion threshold consensus is here — but practice hasn't fully caught up. In the second episode of On with VON, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Roger Soll and Dr. Ravi Patel to extend the conversation from the Vermont Oxford Network Grand Rounds on evidence to practice for transfusion thresholds. The core finding across trials is consistent: lower thresholds for both packed red blood cells and platelets appear safe. The guidelines are freely availa

Hello friends 👋 The AAP has weighed in on therapeutic hypothermia for HIE, and Daphna walks through the clinical report in full. The core eligibility criteria haven't moved — but the edges have gotten more nuanced. Late initiation, the 35-week zone, mild HIE, sentinel events, MRI timing, and feeding during cooling are all addressed. Also this week: a prospective pilot from Australia tests whether adding bedside ultrasound to plain radiography improves surgical risk stratifi

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Mbozu and Shelly-Ann sit down with Dr. Bharati Datta and Dr. Josel Doyle for a conversation that spans four decades and one very full circle moment. Over 40 years ago, Dr. Datta arrived in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from India as the only pediatrician on the island. One of the tiny preterm babies she cared for, weighing barely over a pound at discharge, grew up to become a neonatologist herself. That baby is Dr. Doyle. Together we explo

Hello friends 👋 In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Itamar Nitzan and Alon Meritrikin-Gold, the co-founders of SkinCubator, a revolutionary wearable incubator designed to transform neonatal skin-to-skin care. They discuss how reframing kangaroo care from a rare procedure to a continuous necessity inspired this paradigm-shifting device. The hosts dive into the clinical logistics, from safely transferring intubated extremely preterm infants to alleviating par

Hello friends 👋 In this interview episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Professor Brett Manley to discuss a paradigm shift in neonatal research: adaptive platform trials. Frustrated by the inefficiencies and underpowered results of traditional RCTs, Dr. Manley outlines the ambitious Platypus Adaptive Platform Trial launching in Australia and New Zealand. They dive into how shared primary outcomes, novel consent models, and massive cross-center collaboration can answer press

Hello friends 👋 This week on The Incubator Podcast, Ben and Daphna cover five topics spanning clinical practice, emerging technology, and neonatal policy. They open with a large Swedish national cohort study from JAMA Network Open examining early prophylactic hydrocortisone in extremely preterm infants, debating whether a blanket approach to BPD prevention holds up across gestational ages and in the presence of chorioamnionitis.They then take a critical look at predischarge

Hello friends 👋 What is actually happening inside the uterus during a threatened pregnancy — and does the timing of infection change everything? In this episode of At the Bench, hosts Ben Fensterheim and Betsy Crouch sit down with Dr. Kristen Noble, assistant professor at Indiana University, to explore her work building a transcriptomic and proteomic atlas of intrauterine immune responses across gestation. Dr. Noble shares how clinical uncertainty at the bedside — that impo

Hello friends 👋 In this conversation, Dr. Samer Bou Karroum emphasizes the significance of early planning and preparation in shaping one's career and future. He discusses how contemplating future paths can provide clarity and direction, even if the future remains uncertain. The insights shared highlight the importance of laying a solid foundation to build upon for future success. ---- Short Bio: Samer Bou-Karroum, MD, FAAP, is a Neonatal-Perinatal Fellow at Washington Unive

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jessica Shui, attending neonatologist at Mass General for Children, to explore the game-changing potential of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) in the NICU. We dive into her recent paper in the Journal of Perinatology on using non-invasive EIT to identify optimal PEEP in infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Dr. Shui explains how this real-time, radiation-free technology allows clinicians to visualize lung

Hello friends 👋 The PDA debate has a new data point. TREOCAPA, a phase 3 multicenter European RCT, tested prophylactic acetaminophen in infants born at 23 to 28 weeks. The ductus closed more reliably. Whether that translated into better survival without severe morbidity at 36 weeks is where the conversation gets interesting. Also this week: a large multicenter cohort study puts real numbers on diazoxide use across US NICUs and the pulmonary hypertension risk that has driven