BabyLink — improving communication among clinicians and with the parents
of babies in intensive care
A team from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh have developed an efficient
means for keeping parents informed about the care and progress of their
babies being cared for in the hospital’s neonatal unit. Dr Yvonne
Freer, Dr Andrew Lyon, Dr Ben Stevenson and Clare Russell
describe the system’s main features.
ABSTRACT
BabyLink is an innovative approach to sharing information with parents
whose babies have been admitted to a neonatal unit.
Reports summarising the clinical condition and treatment of the baby are
produced automatically, at least once a day, from the baby’s electronic
medical notes. This does not involve any extra input from the clinical
staff. The software automatically attaches explanatory information to the
clinical data, to help the parents understand their baby’s problems and
treatments. This includes explanations of the risks and benefits of therapy
given to the baby.
The reports are encrypted and posted onto a secure Internet website, the
family being able to access them, using their own usernames and passwords,
from a web browser anywhere in the world. The parents can post questions
back to the clinical team. Baby diaries, including digital photographs, are
also posted to the website.
BabyLink has been beneficial to families in communicating complex
information and humanising the experience of neonatal intensive care.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2005; 22(2): 34–6 |
