(612) Need for a Low-Cost, Portable, Telehealth Point-of-Care Amplitude-Integrated Electroencephalograph in Neonatal Neuro-Diagnostic Monitoring

Rationale: Nearly 15,000 term infants are affected by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy each year in the United States, with the vast majority of them born in low‐acuity settings. Seizures are very common in this population and most are frequently subclinical. Continuous video‐electroencephalograph (vEEG) monitoring is the gold standard for recognizing and treating these seizures, particularly at tertiary care medical centers; however, this resource intense modality remains unavailable to many clinicians at smaller birth facilities. The use of amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) has gained widespread use at most neonatal intensive care units, and represents a more user-friendly bedside tool for identifying brain injury and seizures. There is high value for point-of-care aEEG monitoring in the evaluation and management of neurologic dysfunction in newborns and older infants.

Methods:

An early prototype of the low-cost telemedicine enabled aEEG system with associated multi-instrument software package has been produced and constructed. In the process of developing the full production prototype, the research team created an introductory video to showcase the aEEG hardware and software capabilities. This video was linked to an international survey to obtain feedback from neonatal intensive care unit providers. The providers included pediatric neurologists, neonatologists, and neonatal nurses. Survey results are summarized below.

Results: Fifty-four providers completed the survey. Survey responders were primarily located across the United States and New Zealand. Seventy-eight percent of providers found a seizure-detection device, such as the one introduced, to be very helpful in their practice. Seventy-seven percent found video recording synchronization to EEG data to be extremely helpful. Approximately 70% of responders thought that the amount of information provided to the bedside nurse and neurologist were appropriate. Over 80% felt that the equipment would increase their confidence in managing seizures. Forty-three percent responded that this device would not change their workload. Eighty-nine percent of providers had at least some interest in purchasing this equipment for their neonatal intensive care unit.

Conclusions: An international survey to neonatal intensive care unit providers showed a strong interest in developing and obtaining a full production low-cost, portable, telehealth point-of-care amplitude integrated electrography for neuro-diagnostic monitoring.

Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: NIH 5R44HD085742-03