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
953 episodes
#469 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Early ibuprofen or waiting, does the PDA choice show up at two years?
In this Journal Club episode, Ben and Daphna review the 24-month follow-up of the BeNeDuctus trial, which compared expectant management with early ibuprofen for PDA in infants born before 28 weeks. Survival without neurodevelopmental impairment...
#468 - 🚀 [Tech Tuesday] - What Would A Shared Language For Feeding Look Like At The Bedside?
Feeding in the NICU is rarely one person's job, yet the language around it changes from nurse to therapist to physician to parent. In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Lisa Kleinz and Erin Lesage of Dr. Brown's Medical to ...
#467 - Navigating the Future of Pediatric Healthcare Funding
Ben sits down with Dr. Shetal Shah and AAP federal advocacy director Stephanie Glier to unpack HR1, the sweeping reconciliation bill that could cut $1.15 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade. With 40% of US births and up t...
#466 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from September 19th 2026
This week on The Incubator Podcast, Ben and Daphna dig into four studies reshaping bedside decisions. They open questioning whether routine DAT screening for ABO and RhD incompatibility still earns its place, finding transcutaneous bilirubin al...
#466 - [Neo News] - 📌 Why Are 4 in 10 NICU Stays Missing From Birth Records?
Ben and Eli dig into a Journal of Perinatology study that asks a deceptively simple question: can we trust birth certificate data to tell us how many babies actually need NICU care? The answer, it turns out, is no. Nearly 40% of NICU admissions...
#466 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does IVF Really Raise the Risk of VACTERL Birth Defects?
Ben and Daphna dig into a large, population-based study linking IVF conception to VACTERL association, a rare but serious pattern of congenital anomalies spanning the vertebral, anal, cardiac, tracheoesophageal, renal, and limb systems. D...
#466 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Should we start CPAP at 8 instead of 5 in the delivery room for very preterm infants?
Ben and Daphna dig into a pilot RCT that asks a deceptively simple delivery-room question: should very preterm infants start on CPAP of 5 or CPAP of 8 cmH2O? The PHILODENDRON trial, out of Milan's Buzzi Children's Hospital, randomized 56 babies...
#466 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Oral isn't IM: Sweden's vitamin K data in two million infants
Is the newborn vitamin K shot really being skipped more often these days, and does that actually matter clinically? This week on Journal Club, Ben and Daphna review a nationwide Swedish cohort study of over two million births, published in JAMA...
#466 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Do We Still Need a DAT on Every Newborn at Risk of Hemolytic Disease?
Do we really need a DAT on every baby born to a group O or Rh-negative mother? This week on Journal Club, Ben and Daphna dig into a new Pediatrics study questioning routine Direct Antiglobulin Testing (DAT) in low-risk neonates with ABO or RhD ...
#465 - [🫀 From The Heart] - Bringing NICU Feeding Practices to the CICU (ft Dr. Elgersma)
In this episode of From the Heart, Drs. Nim Goldshtrom and Adrianne Bischoff talk with Dr. Kristin Elgersma, a nurse-researcher whose path into neonatal nutrition began at her son's bedside in a cardiac ICU. A former concert pianist turned nurs...
#464 - [🫀 From The Heart] - Right Drugs, Wrong Heart - A TTTS Recipient That Fooled Everyone
In this episode of From the Heart, Dr. Nim Goldshtrom and Dr. Adrianne Bischoff dissect a hemodynamics consult that changes shape twice in 48 hours. A 30-week recipient twin from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome presents with biventricular dys...
#463 - 🗳️ Meet the Neonatologist Running for AAP President - A Conversation with Dr. Wanda Barfield
Disclosure: Dr. Wanda Barfield appeared on this episode in her personal capacity. The views she expresses are her own and do not represent the official positions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Departm...
#462 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from September 5th 2026
This week's Journal Club. Monday, nasal CPAP versus NIPPV as the bridge to minimally invasive surfactant in infants born before 30 weeks, first author Dr. Hui Zhang. Tuesday, the PAEAN trial on high-dose erythropoietin for neonatal HIE, led by ...
#462 - [Neo News] - 📌 What Does The Pitt Get Right About Boundaries in Medicine?
A medical student on The Pitt finishes her shift, is asked to stay, and tells her supervisor to learn some boundaries. The internet did not let it go. Ben and Eli use that moment to work through what boundary setting actually looks like in a NI...
#462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Dexamethasone Eye Drops Prevent Treatment Requiring ROP?
Steroids again? This time in the eye. Daphna brings the DROP-ROP trial from JAMA Pediatrics, a double-masked randomized study across fourteen Swedish centers asking whether topical dexamethasone can stop pre-threshold ROP from progressing to ty...
#462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Continuous vs Bolus Feeding, Which One Grows Babies Better?
Every unit has a bolus camp and a continuous camp, and both are usually dug in. Ben brings a single center non-inferiority trial from India, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, randomizing 132 infants born before 29 weeks and under a thousa...
#462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 After HEAL Does a Second Trial Close the Book on EPO?
We already had HEAL, so why run this trial at all? Daphna brings PAEAN from JAMA Pediatrics, a phase three trial across 24 units in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore that gave high dose erythropoietin to 313 late preterm and term infants al...
#462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 After LISA Does CPAP Perform as Well as NIMV Below 30 Weeks?
Most trials comparing CPAP and NIMV leave a lingering doubt about whether surfactant explained the difference. This one does not. Ben brings a multicenter noninferiority trial from JAMA Network Open in infants born between 24 and 29 weeks, rand...
#461 - [🫀 From The Heart] - Blue Baby, Gray Baby: Severe LV Dysfunction Masquerading as PPHN
A term newborn looks fine on mom's chest, then crashes within minutes. By the time transport arrives, there's a pH of 6.9, a lactate over 10, and a baby already intubated and on surfactant. Is this pulmonary hypertension, congenital heart disea...
#460 - Reading as a neuroprotective intervention
Why does reading in the NICU still feel optional when the evidence says otherwise? Daphna sits down with Paige Pedroli, author of the Nic Zoo book and two-time NICU mom, and Dr. Raquel Garcia, a craniofacial and feeding specialist, to unpack wh...
#459 - Which AI tools are actually ready for the NICU right now?
Is your EMR actually built for neonatology, or just retrofitted to survive it? Ben sits down with Dr. Lindsey Knake, clinical assistant professor and associate chief health information officer at the University of Iowa, to talk AI in the NICU. ...
#458 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from August 15th 2026
The full week of Journal Club in one place. Monday, the PLaNT trial of prophylactic CPAP for late preterm infants born by cesarean, with senior author Dr. Edgardo Szyld. Tuesday, whether parental holding during therapeutic hypothermia changes f...
#458 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can the respiratory severity score show us where a baby is heading?
The respiratory severity score is one multiplication most of us already do in our heads, mean airway pressure times FiO2. This week Dr. Dinushan Kaluarachchi joins Journal Club to walk through three papers built on it, RSS trajectories across g...
#458 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Could a handheld light probe detect NEC before the X-ray does?
NEC still tends to announce itself on an X-ray, usually later than we want. This week Daphna reviews the first-in-human study of broadband optical spectroscopy, a handheld transcutaneous probe out of Lurie Children's that reads reflected light ...
#458 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Is this the trial that brings probiotics back to the NICU?
Probiotics left US NICUs after the FDA reclassified them, and NEC rates went up. This week Ben reviews the Connection Study, a 2,158 infant phase 3 trial of IBP-9414, a live biotherapeutic product containing Limosilactobacillus reuteri, run und...