Issue #21: A list of FREE neonatal educational resources (Part I)

X (Twitter)/ YouTube channels/ Websites....

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

How great is it to live in this time? Free education everywhere!

Not to be a curmudgeonly “in my day” type person - but when I was in medical school, we had to look up articles by combing through dusty volumes in a dank, poorly lit room off the main library. (Honestly, it was probably quite cozy and bright, but that would ruin the imagery here). Nearly all of our learning came from our textbooks and our brilliant professors.

Now, the dissemination of knowledge is insanely fast. But- a new problem has emerged: as we’re being bombarded by a continuous stream of seemingly relevant information, how do we curate what is important?

Luckily, this era has also given us access to systems that help with this issue too.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

A year ago I attended a conference at which Dr. Ravi Patel encouraged everyone to join X (or twitter) since many NICU professionals use the platform to publicize and discuss articles (recently there was a great discussion on when to stop using CPAP in our preemies..). So, a lot of the curation is being done for you. Let’s start here:

#NeoTwitter:

Sign up to X/ Twitter¹ and follow these educators:

• @Dr_KSGautham (Dr. Gautham): Education and evidenced based medicine and general neonatal musings

• @drbretty (Dr. Brett J Manley): Huge researcher in the neo respiratory world- also super funny!

• @NICU_musings (Dr. Michael Narvey): General NICU education, tidbits of unusual cases etc.

• @nicupodcast (The Incubator Podcast): The Twitter account associated with the juggernaut podcast

• @neosatyan (Dr. Satyan Lakishminrusimha): An expert in a million things but his medical diagrams alone are worth a 1000 words

• @EBNEO (Evidence-Based Neo): Summarizes recent trials and studies

• @natetexsun (Dr. Nathan Sundgren): Regular updates on studies in neonatal resuscitation

• @ravimpatel (Dr. Patel): Researcher, expert in NEC, transfusions amongst others

YouTube educators:

Well, hopefully you’re following us: Tala Talks NICU, (but also quite impressed by anyone who found this newsletter without the help of YouTube!)

Other channels we would recommend:

1. Sridhar K, All About Newborn Care (lots of excellent information on NICU babies and general pediatrics)

2. The NICU doc (complementary to a lot of our stuff, AND a few videos in Spanish)

3. TexSun Neo Ed (excellent resuscitation videos)

4. The Incubator channel (videos from podcast episodes as well as TED-style talks from their conferences)

5. Paeds Life (procedural videos and more neonatal education)

6. The Nurse Nook (a great behind the scenes look at a NICU nurse turned NNP)

Assorted Websites

• Do yourself a favor and read everything Dr. Keith Barrington writes on his Neonatal Research website. He summarizes articles (often with a biting wit) and puts them into a broader context. What else has been written on the subject? How will it affect our care at bedside? Always supremely educational.

• NICU Tools does all your basic calculations for you. Whether you want to convert pounds to kilos (a big issue in the US!), calculate how deep your UAC should go, or how much actual Oxygen your patient is receiving on nasal cannula, there’s a tab for it. It is also available as an app.

  

• BiliTool allows you to plug in the bilirubin and age of the patient (etc.) and based on the 2022 guidelines will give you recommendations (check serum bili? Phototherapy? etc.)

• There is lots of great information on the NICHD Neonatal Research Network website. On their ‘Tools’ tab there is a BPD outcome estimator as well as a fantastic summary of the neurological exam for HIE diagnosis.

• NeoCardiolab is a truly phenomenal website created by Dr. Altit et al. It covers everything related to hearts/ blood pressure/ bedside ultrasounds and echos. Poke around for a bit and learn something new every time!

• 99 NICU: A website dedicated to building and accessing a neonatal community. (Sign up for free). There are forums with excellent discussions on wide-ranging and topical subjects. Dr. Johansson has done a remarkable job at maintaining the breadth of this site.
  

• NICU professionals is a private facebook group with just under 12K subscribers. Any member (ask to join if you work in the NICU) can initiate posts. Replies are always well considered, whether they cover which medication is incompatible with lipids, or how to handle a sticky work situation.

• The Stanford Medicine website has the best library of newborn pictures (normal and abnormal) all beautifully arranged and explained. Thank you so much Dr. Janelle Aby!

  

• Neonatology Today is a free, monthly online journal containing ‘Peer Reviewed Research, News and Information in Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine’. It is chock full of useful articles, graphics and announcements of various conferences and available webinars.

• The National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) website is packed with helpful information, including a brilliant list of links to (free) external sites (think CDC, Hand to Hold etc.) as well as a list of Industry Resources (all those under- used educational pages created by formula and ventilator companies etc.)

• The neonatal team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia publishes their well researched consensus statements and clinical pathways to follow. I recently followed their logical retro/micrognathia algorithm. Thank you CHOP!

  This email has already gone on too long!! so we’ll include a bunch more free resources (apps/ podcasts/ Instagrams/ TikToks etc.) in our next newsletter…

  Please comment below or email us with your OWN trusted favorites!

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And the rest:

• A reminder: if you’d like to choose which videos you watch next (you’re going to be so happy with recent member choices!), or you’d like a neonatal tip a week, live chats and zoom sessions, PDF worksheets (and more!) then join our lovely community here: (not free, but for less than a coffee!)

  (Plus you’ll get to watch our members only videos: Here!!)

• Remember to check out our Amazon storefront. We added reference and non-fiction books as well as a few other NICU friendly items. If you purchase anything through the links, all commissions will go to a neonatal charity. (So have at it!)

• We hope you’re enjoying this newsletter as much as we enjoy writing it. WHAT FREE RESOURCES WOULD YOU RECOMMEND?

  Stay healthy, and we’ll be back in your inboxes in 2 weeks,

  Tala and Arianna

P.S Our opinions are our own and do not represent the hospitals or practices we work for. This newsletter is intended for educational/entertainment purposes only and is in no way a replacement for medical advice.

1. Look, I know, Twitter/X has gone weirdly political and lots of people have recently left the platform BUT it’s still a great way to get rapid analysis from brilliant minds.