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
933 episodes
#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...
#458 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does holding during cooling change NICU outcomes in HIE?
Parents of babies undergoing therapeutic hypothermia often wait days before they can hold their child, and many never get the chance during cooling at all. This week on Journal Club, Daphna reviews a new Journal of Perinatology retrospective co...
#458 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Should late preterm infants born by cesarean receive prophylactic CPAP?
Late preterm babies born by cesarean fill our NICUs, and most of them are there for respiratory distress that resolves in a day or two. Could 20 minutes of CPAP in the operating room keep them out? This week on Journal Club, Ben and Daphna brea...
#457 - Are We Rethinking When and How We Give Surfactant (ft Dr. Roger Soll)
When is surfactant "early," and when is it too early, or too late? In this second installment of our two-part series with the Neonatal Resuscitation Symposium, Ben Courchia sits down with Dr. Roger Soll, a leading voice in surfactant research s...
#456 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from August 1st 2026
Which babies with critical congenital heart disease face the highest risk of brain injury, and does earlier surgery actually help? Why is infant CHD mortality climbing again after years of decline, and who's most affected? Can a mother's cardio...
#456 - [Neo News] - 📌 Why Did the US Fund a Hepatitis B Trial That Withheld the Birth Dose?
In this episode of Neo News, Ben and Eli break down a troubling story in vaccine policy: an unsolicited $1.6 million CDC grant funding a Danish research group's trial in Guinea-Bissau, one designed to withhold or delay the hepatitis B birth dos...
#456 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Do These Newborns Have Diastolic Dysfunction, or Just Different Physiology?
In this prospective study, Adrianne and Nim dig into an area with almost no normative pediatric data: right ventricular diastolic function. Comparing 57 infants with RV pressure overload after intervention for pulmonic stenosis or tetralogy of ...
#456 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Why Does a Sicker Mom Sometimes Mean a Stronger Neonatal Heart?
In this small prospective pilot study, Adrianne and Nim explore a domain rarely discussed on rounds, how a mother's cardiovascular function in preeclampsia shapes her newborn's circulatory transition. Using maternal echo and neonatal electrical...
#456 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Why Is CHD Mortality Rising Again After 15 Years of Progress?
In this retrospective national study, Adrianne and Nim look at 25 years of congenital heart disease mortality in the US using CDC WONDER data. Infant mortality remains staggeringly high (54 per 100,000), and after years of steady decline, it ha...
#456 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Should an Abnormal Brain MRI Change the Decision to Operate in Critical CHD?
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, Nim and Adrianne dig into just how common brain injury really is in neonates with critical congenital heart disease. Pooling 31 studies spanning two decades, the authors found that nearly 70% of thes...
#455 - [Neo News] - Is Communication a Procedural Skill We're Failing to Train?
What if communication were treated as a procedure, something we train for and get feedback on, just like an intubation? In this episode of Neo News, Eli Cahan talks with Dr. Jessica Fry of Northwestern University and Lurie Children's Hosp...
#454 - PEEP, Tidal Volume, and Physiology, How Far Has Resuscitation Science Traveled? (ft Dr. Charles Roehr)
How far has delivery room ventilation really come? In this special episode, recorded in collaboration with the Neonatal Resuscitation Symposium, Ben sits down with Dr. Charles Roehr, professor of neonatology and perinatal medicine at the Univer...
#453 - 📑 Journal Club - The Complete Episode from July 18th 2026
Which PDAs actually need treatment? Can maternal voice and scent shape language outcomes? Should we cool at 35 weeks? And did stepping away from probiotics come at a cost? This week’s Journal Club takes on five papers that push back on standard...
#453 - [Neo News] - 📌 Are You Still Assuming Every Newborn Got Vitamin K?
Vitamin K refusal has crossed 5%. That's one in twenty babies, and the curve is bending the wrong way. Ben and Eli work through a new Pediatrics case review that opens with a warning shot, that hemorrhagic presentation in an infant should no lo...
#453 - [Journal Club] - 📌 What Happened to NEC When Centers Stopped Using Probiotics?
When the FDA warning landed in late 2023, probiotic use in high-use NICUs collapsed from 86% to under 7% almost overnight. What happened to NEC? This week Daphna brings Tolia and Patel's new Journal of Perinatology analysis of the Pediatrix Cli...
#453 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Should We Cool 35 Week Infants with Encephalopathy?
Cooling works at 36 weeks. At 35 weeks, nobody is sure. Ben brings a new Journal of Perinatology analysis of the National Inpatient Sample, covering 1.4 million infants from 2016 to 2022, asking what happens when therapeutic hypothermia is offe...
#453 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Can We Rewire a Preterm Baby's Brain for Language?
In this Journal Club, Daphna takes the reins with the MIND randomized controlled trial from Nathalie Maitre and colleagues in The Journal of Pediatrics. Can a multisensory bundle, combining infant-directed voice, a parent's scent, holding, and ...
#453 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Should We Treat the PDA Based on Size Alone? (SMART PDA Trial)
In this Journal Club, Ben and Daphna dig into two new papers on PDA management in our smallest patients. First, the SMART-PDA pilot RCT from Souvik Mitra and colleagues, which uses comprehensive hemodynamic screening to selectively treat high-v...
#452 - 🚀 [Tech Tuesday] - Why Midline Positioning Matters More Than We Think
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...
#451 - On with VON (EPS 3) - Re-examining the Evidence for Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents in Preterm Infants
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 Co...
#450 - 📑 [Journal Club] - 🫀From The Heart - The Complete Episode from July 4th 2026
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 hypo...