The Incubator

The Incubator
The Incubator
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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.

  1. 17 hr ago

    #462 - [Neo News] - 📌 What Does The Pitt Get Right About Boundaries in Medicine?

    Send us Fan Mail 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 NICU, why a tired clinician makes different decisions at three in the morning than at three in the afternoon, and where duty hours collide with the fact that patients do not arrive on a curriculum. Also, why handing a resident your pager at two PM may be the cheapest patient safety intervention available. ---- Haridasani Gupta A. On "The Pitt," She Clocked Out on Time. In Real Life, It Started a Debate. The New York Times. May 11, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/style/the-pitt-joy-kwon-irene-choi-work-life-balance.html Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  2. 1 day ago

    #462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Dexamethasone Eye Drops Prevent Treatment Requiring ROP?

    Send us Fan Mail 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 type one disease. One hundred infants, born under 30 weeks, dosed for up to twelve weeks, some still getting drops at home. Twenty percent needed laser or anti-VEGF in the dexamethasone arm versus thirty-eight percent on placebo, a relative risk reduction that did not reach significance. Ben and Daphna talk through the safety signals, the intraocular pressure question, and how fast our field adopts promising ROP data. ---- Dexamethasone Eye Drops to Prevent Treatment-Requiring Retinopathy of Prematurity: The DROPROP Randomized Clinical Trial. Hellström A, Petrishka-Lozenska M, Sjöbom U, Wallander J, Nilsson AK, Löfqvist C, Ley D, Gränse L, Öhnell HM, Hård AL, Jakobsson G, Sävman K, Domellöf M, Löfgren S, Larsson E, Smith LEH, Pivodic A, Lundgren P; DROPROP Collaboration Group.JAMA Pediatr. 2026 Aug 3:e263247. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.3247. Online ahead of print. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  3. 2 days ago

    #462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 Continuous vs Bolus Feeding, Which One Grows Babies Better?

    Send us Fan Mail 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 thousand grams to extended infusion feeding or two hourly bolus feeds. Weight gain at discharge was essentially identical at 15.3 versus 15.7 grams per kilo per day, but the infusion group lost two fewer days to interrupted feeds. Ben and Daphna talk through the five on one off infusion cycle, two hourly bolus feeding, and why fewer interruptions may be the real outcome. ---- Effect of Extended Infusion Versus Intermittent Bolus Feedings on Hospital Weight Gain in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants Born at 29 Weeks of Gestation: A Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial. Balasubramanian H, Sahoo M, Chhadva D, Choubey R, Sakharkar S, Pillai A, Kabra NS.J Pediatr. 2026 Jul 13;298:115235. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2026.115235. Online ahead of print. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  4. 3 days ago

    #462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 After HEAL Does a Second Trial Close the Book on EPO?

    Send us Fan Mail 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 already receiving therapeutic hypothermia for HIE. Same drug, same dosing, nearly the same eligibility criteria as HEAL, by design. Death or moderate to severe developmental deficit at two years was 34 percent with EPO versus 29 percent with placebo. Ben and Daphna talk through the thrombosis signal, why replication feels so foreign in neonatology, and what is left in the adjunct pipeline. ---- Erythropoietin for Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Liley HG, Hunt RW, O'Connell RL, Battin MR, Novak I, Wu YW, Ballard R, Askie L, Badawi N, Ghadge A, Jacobs SE, Juul SE, Sebastian L, Wagh D, Simes RJ; PAEAN Study Investigators.JAMA Pediatr. 2026 Jul 27:e263082. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.3082. Online ahead of print. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  5. 4 days ago

    #462 - [Journal Club] - 📌 After LISA Does CPAP Perform as Well as NIMV Below 30 Weeks?

    Send us Fan Mail 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, randomized to nasal CPAP or NIMV with every baby receiving less invasive surfactant administration. The trial stopped early for futility after 312 infants. Noninvasive ventilation failure within 72 hours was 26 percent on CPAP versus 13 percent on NIMV. Ben and Daphna talk through what happens when surfactant is off the table, the unexpected NEC signal, and where the guidelines may need revisiting. ---- Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure vs Nasal Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation in Preterm Infants With Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Zhang H, Zhang Y, Zeng L, Tong X, Piao M, He H, Zhao C, Xie H, Zheng Z, Cui Q, Lai Y, Wang H, Wang L, Liu H, Tian X, Wu H, Kang L, Han T.JAMA Netw Open. 2026 Jun 1;9(6):e2619785. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.19785. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  6. 24 Aug

    #461 - [🫀 From The Heart] - Blue Baby, Gray Baby: Severe LV Dysfunction Masquerading as PPHN

    Send us Fan Mail 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 disease, or something else entirely? In this episode of From the Heart, It's Complicated, Dr. Adrianne Bischoff and Dr. Nim Goldshtrom work through a real, complex neonatal cardiac case in real time — the kind of case that keeps neonatologists up at night. They break down how to clinically differentiate PPHN from congenital heart disease with limited data, why epinephrine's response mattered more than the blood pressure number, how therapeutic hypothermia can unmask cardiac dysfunction, and why "blue is always better than gray" when managing a shunt-dependent circulation. Along the way: real literature, real physiology, and the reasoning behind decisions made under pressure, with a surprise diagnosis at the end. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  7. 21 Aug

    #460 - Reading as a neuroprotective intervention

    Send us Fan Mail 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 why reading to preterm and critically ill infants belongs alongside kangaroo care as neuropromotive, not just neuroprotective. They cover the evidence behind auditory stimulation and language outcomes, why reading gives overwhelmed parents a real role in their baby's care, and how units can build low-cost reading programs with book libraries and student volunteers. A practical, moving conversation for anyone building developmental care into daily NICU practice. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

  8. 17 Aug

    #459 - Which AI tools are actually ready for the NICU right now?

    Send us Fan Mail 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. They cover the real difference between Epic's homegrown tools and third-party options like Evidently and NABLA, why a six-month hospital stay breaks most chart summarization tools, and how ambient AI is starting to change documentation and family counseling. Lindsey also shares practical paths into clinical informatics for clinicians without a coding background. A grounded look at where NICU technology actually stands right now. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

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About

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.

Information

  • Channel
    The Incubator
  • Creator
    Ben Courchia & Daphna Yasova Barbeau
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    940
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 CATO NEONATAL INNOVATIONS INC.
  • Show Website
    The Incubator
  • Provider
    ENSO NEONATAL INNOVATION LLC

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