Telemedicine, a tool for follow-up of infants discharged from the NICU? Experience from a pilot project.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Follow-up of infants from the NICU by neonatologist is limited to premature and complicated infants although parents of infants with advanced gestation may have concerns as well. We compared parental questions of infants < 35 weeks gestation (group A), during virtual telemedicine visits, to ≥35 week infants (group B). STUDY DESIGN: In a retrospective cohort study, questions asked by parents were extracted from the electronic medical record of all infants post discharge from the NICU, after their pediatrician visit. RESULTS: Gestation and birth weight of infants in group A were significantly lower than group B but their stay was longer. There were no significant differences in the number of parents who had questions, between the groups (A 68.1% vs B 67.3%, p = 0.91, 95% CI 0.46-1.99, OR = 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Telemedicine is a feasible tool for follow-up of NICU infants post discharge. Parents of infants with advanced gestation and weight may benefit from NICU follow-up.