Bengaluru, NFAPost: Motherhood Hospitals, India’s leading network of women and children’s hospitals, has implemented an innovative remote patient monitoring technology and system called NICU Live to provide virtual neonatal care to newborns in semi-urban and rural areas without proper Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). This initiative aims to bridge the neonatal care expertise gap between urban and rural India.
NICU Live uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring technology and a specialized digital solution to treat high-risk newborns admitted in distant NICUs. In the first phase of this unique initiative, Motherhood Hospitals have set up a Central Care Centre (Hub) connected to 5 remote NICUs located in Anantapur, Hindupur, Madanapalle, Patna & Hisar. The Central Care team (hub) provides 24/7 monitoring and treatment support to the remote NICU (spoke) centres using high-resolution PTZ cameras that provide live video feed, a digital platform that ensures all critical information is shared digitally, and a constant communication link between the teams, thereby improving medical outcomes substantially for these newborns.
Mr Vijayarathna Venkatraman, CEO of Motherhood Hospitals, said, “With several newborns in rural & semi-urban areas needing immediate NICU care, this program aims to bridge the gap and make NICU accessible to all. The technology is brilliant—what we’ve managed to do with it is a landmark moment in our journey to provide outstanding clinical care to newborns.”
Dr Prathap Chandra, neonatologist & paediatrician at Motherhood Hospitals, added, “NICU Live’s proactive interventions and guided emergency management will set benchmarks in neonatal care once we bring more hospitals into the program.”
NICU Live brings down the cost of a physical NICU without compromising the quality of care, besides bridging the gap in the availability of specialists. Families can look forward to immediate access to advanced NICU care in remote areas and lower medical expenses.
Motherhood Hospitals’ NICU Live project is the result of years of innovation in the field of Neonatology, combining the experience in managing over 300 level-3 NICU beds and the expertise in handling the most clinically complex cases in the country. The NICU Live virtual neonatology care network can potentially reach 1000 beds across the country over the next 5 years.
