The Incubator
A weekly discussion about new evidence in neonatal care and the fascinating individuals who make this progress possible. Hosted by Dr. Ben Courchia and Dr. Daphna Yasova Barbeau.
Episodes
902 episodes
#447 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from June 13th 2026
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...
#447 - [Neo News] - 📌 - Why Are Doctors Flocking to HBO Max's The Pitt?
In this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli discuss the cultural phenomenon of HBO Max’s new hit medical drama, The Pitt. Sparked by an insightful critique in The New Yorker by Dr. Dhruv Khullar, they dive into why this Noah Wyle-led series is cap...
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is a Five-Day Antibiotic Course Enough to Treat UTIs in the NICU?
Is five days of antibiotics enough to treat a urinary tract infection in a NICU infant? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a single-center study from Nationwide Children's Hospital examining adherence and safety of a five-day a...
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does Extended CPAP Reduce Intermittent Hypoxemia in Stable Preterm Infants?
What happens to intermittent hypoxemia when you keep a stable preterm infant on CPAP for two extra weeks? In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a secondary analysis from the Journal of Pediatrics by Mamidi and McEvoy. Among 95 inf...
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Are we missing UTIs in neonates hospitalized for unexplained jaundice?
In this Journal Club episode, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from Istanbul examining clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound factors associated with UTI in neonates hospitalized for unexplained hyperbilirubinemia. Among 96 term and ne...
#447 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is phototherapy doing more harm than good in very preterm infants?
In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review a nationwide Swedish cohort study examining the association between phototherapy duration and neonatal outcomes in very preterm infants (22 to 31 weeks). The study’s primary outcome, late neon...
#446 - Is Bedside Transcatheter PDA Closure Ready for Your NICU?
What if closing a PDA could be done at the bedside in under 10 minutes, without transporting a fragile preterm infant to the cath lab? Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Nicklaus Children's Heart Institute, joins us to d...
#445 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from May 30th 2026
Opioid withdrawal dosing, intranasal breast milk, human milk fortification in Japan, neonatal dysphagia, and vaccine policy. A full week on the Incubator Journal Club.Ben opens with the Optimized NOW trial in JAMA: symptom-based dosing r...
#445 - [Neo News] - 📌 Are Regulatory Roadblocks Threatening the Future of Neonatal Vaccines?
In this fast-paced episode of Neo News, Eli and Ben tackle the rapidly shifting landscape of vaccine regulation and economics in the US. They discuss recent political maneuvers surrounding the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and how ...
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Are we missing dysphagia in very preterm infants before they leave the NICU?
How often are we missing dysphagia in our most vulnerable NICU patients? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a retrospective cohort study from the Journal of Perinatology examining the incidence and risk factors of dysphagia confirm...
#445 - What Can Japan Teach Us About Treating Human Milk Fortifier as a Drug? (Part 2)
What does it take to turn a single struggling baby into a national standard of care? In this episode, Ben sits down with Professor Katsumi Mizuno (Showa Medical University) and Dr. Melinda Elliott (Chief Medical Officer, Prolacta Bioscience) to...
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does an exclusive human milk diet improve growth in very low birth weight infants? (Part 1)
Japan has some of the best survival rates for extremely preterm infants in the world, yet feeding practices there look very different from what many of us are used to. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben reviews the JASMINE trial, a multicente...
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can a few drops of breast milk in a preterm infant's nose actually improve cerebral oxygenation?
Could putting a few drops of breast milk in a preterm infant's nose actually improve cerebral oxygenation? In this episode of Journal Club, Daphna reviews a randomized controlled trial from the European Journal of Pediatrics investigating the p...
#445 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can symptom-based dosing cut hospitalization time for babies with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome?
One infant is diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome every 27 minutes, and rates are rising. In this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna review the Optimized NOW randomized clinical trial, a landmark multicenter study published ...
#444 - Can a Beanie Protect NICU Infants from Harmful Noise While Keeping Them Connected to Their Parents?
The NICU is one of the loudest environments a newborn will ever experience, yet it is also where the most vulnerable infants spend their earliest, most developmentally critical days. In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Ga...
#443 - Could NeoGuide Be the Answer to the NICU’s Variability Problem?
Every neonatologist has built a protocol or written a guideline, and most have done it completely alone. In this episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Christina Muffy Sollinger (UC Davis) and Dr. Sarvin Ghavam (CHOP), the co-founders of NeoGuide, a n...
#442 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from May 16th 2026
Cerebral oxygenation, staffing economics, delivery room scoring, neurodevelopmental prognostication, and public health — a full week on the Incubator Journal Club.Ben walks through the NIRTURE trial, a single-device RCT testing c...
#442 - [Neo News] - 📌 What Is the Ripple Effect of Defunding Disease Surveillance?
In this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli tackle the recent, quiet—but massive—public health funding cuts implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services. With $600 million pulled back from four targeted states and additional CDC bloc...
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does combining EEG and MRI improve neurodevelopmental prognostication in preterm infants?
In this episode of Journal Club, we wrap up a marathon recording session with a deep dive into the world of neonatal neuroprognostication. Daphna reviews a systematic review and meta-analysis from Pediatric Neurology that evaluates whether comb...
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is a low Apgar score more concerning than a low umbilical pH in preemies?
Ben kicks things off with a major career update before we dive into a critical study from JAMA Network Open. We explore the predictive value of the five minute Apgar score when combined with umbilical artery pH in very preterm infants. While th...
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does 24 hour in house staffing decrease physician productivity metrics?
Is your NICU considering the shift to 24 hour in house attending coverage? In this episode of Journal Club, we explore a provocative brief communication from the Journal of Perinatology. Ben and Daphna discuss the impact of moving from home cal...
#442 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does NIRS guided treatment improve clinical outcomes for extremely preterm infants?
In this episode of Journal Club, Ben and Daphna dive into the results of the NIRTURE trial, recently published in JAMA Network Open. Building on the lessons of SafeBoosC 3 , the NIRTURE investigators aimed to reduce the burden of cerebral hypox...
#441 - Is Two Years Enough? Fellowship Directors Respond to the ABP’s Proposed Training Overhaul
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 traini...
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - What Goes Into Planning the Biggest Pediatric Conference in the World?
Dr. Daniel Rauch, PAS 2026 program chair, joins Ben for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off a conference of this scale — and what he's learned from this year's record-breaking attendance in Boston. He reflects on the sessions ...
#440 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Is the Neonatology Job Market About to Shift Dramatically in Fellows' Favor?
Dr. Benny Rossner, PGY-2 pediatrics resident and veteran physician recruiter with 15 years of experience building clinical teams across the country, joins Ben and Rupa for a candid look at the neonatology workforce from a side of the conversati...