The Incubator's Journal Club
The Incubator’s Journal Club is a weekly podcast dedicated to reviewing the latest evidence published in peer-reviewed journals in neonatology and perinatal medicine. Each episode breaks down important studies in newborn and perinatal care, with a clear focus on methodology, key findings, and real-world clinical impact. Designed for clinicians, nurses, and trainees, this series highlights research that meaningfully informs bedside practice and clinical decision-making. It is an efficient and reliable way to stay current with the most relevant and practice-changing evidence in neonatal care.
Episodes
178 episodes
#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...
#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...
#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...
#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...
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Is Dopamine Still Defensible as First-Line for Neonatal Septic Shock?
In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, Adrianne and Nim examine whether norepinephrine outperforms dopamine as a first-line vasoactive agent in neonates with fluid-refractory septic shock. The primary outcome, shock reversal at 30 mi...
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀 From The Heart - Does Early Hydrocortisone Actually Move the Needle in Fluid-Refractory Shock?
In this double-blind randomized controlled trial from northern India, Nim and Adrianne review whether early hydrocortisone reduces 14-day all-cause mortality in preterm infants with fluid-refractory shock. The primary outcome showed no statisti...
#450 - [Journal Club] - 🫀From The Heart - When Nitric Oxide Fails: Is the Left Ventricle the Culprit in Septic Preterm Infants?
In this retrospective single-center study from Toronto, Adrianne and Nim explore the echo findings of preterm infants with septic shock and hypoxemic respiratory failure. Contrary to the common assumption that elevated pulmonary vascular resist...
#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...
#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 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Does an exclusive human milk diet improve growth in very low birth weight infants?
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...