The Incubator: Rupa's Fellows Friday

The incubator Podcast
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Hosted by Rupa Hari Gopal, Rupa’s Fellows corner is a series dedicated to trainees and early career neonatologists to share your research and interests in Neonatology! If you have a project and love to chat about it, let’s connect!

Episodes

  1. 12/01/2025

    #012 - Dr. Andrew Beverstock - Exploring Neonatal Nutrition: The Role of Urinary Sodium

    In this episode, Dr. Andrew Beverstock discusses his research on urinary sodium and its relationship with growth in preterm neonates. He shares insights into the importance of sodium for neonatal growth, the methodology of his study, and the unexpected results that challenge existing literature. The conversation also touches on his diverse medical training, mentorship experiences, and his involvement in medical education and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). Dr. Beverstock emphasizes the significance of careful population selection in research and outlines his future research directions. 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!

    33 min

  2. 11/28/2025

    #011 - Dr. Sidney Zven’s Research on Addressing Food Insecurity in Military Families

    In this episode, Dr. Sidney Zven shares his unique journey from a civil engineering career to becoming a neonatology fellow at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. He discusses his experiences with food insecurity among military families, particularly focusing on WIC enrollment challenges and the impact of stigma and misinformation. Dr. Zven highlights his mentorship experience while working on a grant to address these issues and the importance of engaging stakeholders in community health initiatives. He also provides insights into his neonatology fellowship training and his aspirations for the future in military medicine. 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!

    37 min

  3. 10/27/2025

    #010 - Teaching Life-Saving Care Across Borders: Dr. Manjari Pophale’s SALSA Project

    In this episode, Dr. Manjari Pophale discusses her innovative global health project focused on implementing surfactant administration techniques in resource-limited NICUs across Africa. She shares insights into the project's development, the importance of mentorship, and the positive impact of the SALSA method on neonatal outcomes. The conversation highlights the challenges and successes of global health initiatives, emphasizing the need for effective training and community engagement. 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!

    29 min

  4. 10/27/2025

    #009 - Dr. Isabella Eiler - Exploring risk factors related to obtaining umbilical cord blood gas samples

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Isabella Eiler from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is originally from the Milwaukee area and first attended the Medical College of Wisconsin for medical school. She then went on to complete her pediatric residency at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In this episode of Rupa's Fellows Friday, Dr. Isabella Eiler discusses her journey in neonatology, particularly her interest in NeuroNICU and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). She shares insights from her research on missed opportunities for neonatal assessments and the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in improving patient care. Dr. Eiler emphasizes the significance of mentorship during fellowship and the impact of social determinants on neonatal follow-up care. She also reflects on the challenges faced in research and offers valuable advice for future neonatology fellows. 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!

    22 min

  5. 10/27/2025

    #008 - Investigating preterm birth and readmission to the PICU (Dr. Tim Van Hasselt)

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Tim Van Hasselt, who is now a NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer and Neonatal Subspeciality Registrar (fellow-equivalent) at the University of Leicester, UK..  Tim describes his training in the UK, his pathway to doing his PhD in investigating the impact of preterm birth on readmissions to the PICU. We talk about how he went about finding his mentor and how the project came about. He used two national databases and investigated his research question, where he ultimately found that the odds of unplanned admissions to PICU were greater in the most preterm and those with significant neonatal morbidity. With this data, he, along with his team were able to create infographics that could help educate parents of NICU graduates.  (https://timms.le.ac.uk/preterm-birth-and-paediatric-intensive-care/) He also describes his experience interacting with parents who provided valuable feedback for the infographics and for his project. Dr Van Hasselt has successfully published his data in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Paediatric intensive care admissions of preterm children born | ADC Fetal & Neonatal Edition He also has several publications related to this topic and has presented his work in several National conferences.  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!

    37 min

  6. 10/27/2025

    #007 - Exploring Healthcare Utilization in Moderate to Late Preterm Infants with Dr. Ambika Bhatnagar

    In this episode of Rupa’s Fellows Friday on The Incubator Podcast, host Rupa Srirupa welcomes Dr. Ambika Bhatnagar, a third-year neonatology fellow at Yale. Dr. Bhatnagar shares her journey from medical school in India to fellowship in the U.S. and dives into her research focusing on moderate to late preterm infants—an often overlooked but significant portion of the preterm population. She explains why this group, though not as critically ill as extremely preterm infants, still faces unique morbidities and places a substantial burden on families and the healthcare system. Her study investigates long-term healthcare utilization in these infants over their first two years of life, analyzing not just hospital readmissions but also ER visits, subspecialty consultations, and therapy appointments. Dr. Bhatnagar discusses her findings, including the role of breastfeeding in reducing healthcare utilization and surprising trends in demographic factors. She also shares insights on mentorship during fellowship, building a research project from scratch, and her involvement with NeoQuest, an educational platform for neonatology fellows. This conversation highlights the importance of curiosity-driven research and its potential to improve outcomes for a vulnerable but under-researched neonatal population. 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!

    29 min

  7. 10/27/2025

    #006 – Exploring the impact of prematurity on caregiver employment decisions (Dr. Erin Von Klein)

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Erin Von Klien, who is now a third year Neonatology fellow at Monroe Carell Children’s Hospital/Vanderbilt University, Nashville. Erin described her research project on exploring association between caregiver employment decisions and having a preterm infant. Erin describes her project which was also recently published in JAMA pediatrics (Preterm Birth and Caregiver Employment Decisions | Reproductive Health | JAMA Pediatrics | JAMA Network) where she investigated the impact of prematurity in parental employment decisions. She describes how she got interested in this impactful topic and how she found her mentor. She is a 2024 recipient of the AAP Marshall Klaus Award in Health Services Research and a participant in the Vanderbilt Patient/ Practice Outcomes Research in Effectiveness and Systems Science (PROgRESS) T32 Program. In this episode she describes her experience in grant writing and winning the AAP Marshall Klaus award. She also provides valuable advice to incoming fellows who are interested in the physician scientist pathway in health services research. 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!

    26 min

  8. 10/27/2025

    #005 - Quality Improvement project on early fortification of preterm infants

    Today we are joined by Dr Radhika Madali, who is a third year NICU fellow from Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY. We talked about the QI efforts that she took during her fellowship in implementing faster enteral feed advancement and early fortification in a level IV neonatal intensive care unit. She shared the multidisciplinary experience that she developed with this project and also appreciates the support and mentorship she received. Radhika also shared insights on other projects that she got involved in- notably investigating the impact of glycemic variability on treatment-requiring ROP. She shared about her experience being a representative to the Fellowship Recruitment Action Team (FRAT) from the AAP Section on Pediatric Training. 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!

    31 min

  9. 10/27/2025

    #004 - Improving resident debriefing following critical events in the NICU

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Kelsey Kirkman who is now a third year Neonatology fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital. Kelsey shared with us her primary fellow project on creating a debrief tool for residents following critical events in the NICU. She describes in depth about how she came up with this idea and how she found her mentor to help support and navigate her medical education interest.  We talked about medical education theories and how to perform a thematic analysis. We talk about her challenges in implementing her project and how she tackled them. We also discussed how she took her medical education research to the next level by pursuing a Masters in Medical education through UT Houston. She shared insights on how she balanced fellowship training with her masters. Kelsey also shared her lessons learnt from her experience and provided some of the resources that helped her understand medical education better. Kelsey hopes to have a medical career in a leadership role, leading a training program, and applying her knowledge in medical education in improving neonatology subspeciality training.  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!

    33 min

  10. 10/27/2025

    #003 – Dynamics of human milk expression after very preterm birth in the NICU: Dr Ilana Levene

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Ilana Levene, who is now a Neonatology subspeciality trainee at Oxford, England. Ilana has done some fantastic work on exploring the important topic of human milk expression. She described her randomized control trial in using relaxing techniques to facilitate human milk expression in the NICU. She shared the challenges that she had in conducting her RCT. We also talked about RCTs with negative results and how negative results are also important in conducting research. Ilana has now created a website with printables for parents and staff in the NICU on human milk expression. This can be assessed for free here : http://www.hifn.org/printable . Ilana also shared her interest in perinatal equity and shared details on her project Spectrum which involves gathering photos of the lactating breast conditions/chest from people with a wide spectrum of skin colours. These will be provided as a free educational image library. Currently she is chairing a priority setting partnership for LGBTQIA+ perinatal care. 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!

    33 min

  11. 10/27/2025

    #002 – Insights into Metabolic Bone Disease of Prematurity (ft Dr. Shayla Percy)

    In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Shayla Percy, who is now a third year Neonatology fellow UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Shayla described her QI project and the steps she took with her team to improve detection and management of metabolic disease of prematurity. She talked about the team work and the support from her mentors that set her up for a successful project. We also talked about some of the challenges that she experienced and how she tackled it. Shayla completed QI courses during the fellowship and also won the AAP young investigator award for her project. Shayla shared her experience presenting her work at AAP and provided insights to future incoming fellows who might be interested in a similar research pathway.  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!

    30 min

  12. 10/27/2025

    #001 – A fellow improving care for low- and middle-income countries (fr. Dr Amee Amin)

    Welcome to the debut episode of Rupa’s Fellows Friday, a new series on The Incubator podcast, hosted by Dr. Srirupa Gopal. This series celebrates the incredible research and passion of neonatology fellows from around the globe. Our first guest, Dr. Amee Amin, a third-year neonatology fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), shares her inspiring journey and groundbreaking work in global health. Dr. Amin discusses her diverse background—born in Kenya, raised in Tanzania, and trained in India, the UK, and the US—and how it shaped her dedication to improving neonatal care in low-resource settings. She highlights her recent project: developing and implementing a low-cost continuous respiratory rate monitor designed for use in neonatal intensive care units in low- and middle-income countries. This innovative device, created in collaboration with Rice University, uses sensors to measure respiratory rates accurately and affordably, empowering healthcare providers with vital tools in resource-constrained settings. The conversation also delves into the challenges of conducting global health research during fellowship, the importance of mentorship, and Dr. Amin’s transformative experiences working in Malawi and presenting at the Tiny Feet Big Steps conference in Tanzania. This inspiring episode highlights the power of passion, collaboration, and innovation in neonatology. 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!

    32 min
  • 12 Episodes

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Hosted by Rupa Hari Gopal, Rupa’s Fellows corner is a series dedicated to trainees and early career neonatologists to share your research and interests in Neonatology! If you have a project and love to chat about it, let’s connect!

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