After piloting the new technology at the University’s NICU, the University partnered with other hospitals throughout the country, expanding the project to nine NICUs nationwide with the help of funding from the National Institutes of Health and Medical Predictive Science Corporation. A randomized trial involving 3,000 babies took place to determine the effectiveness of the HeRO score in multiple environments, resulting in a decrease of over 20 percent in mortality rate for monitored infants.
“We helped save lives and averted illnesses entirely,” Moorman said. “That is a great and very compelling story, one that I have heard from every NICU that uses this kind of monitoring. It is a strong motivator to take this approach using ubiquitously available data.”
According to Pediatrics Prof. Karen Fairchild, the success of monitoring in the trials reinforced the value of the HeRO score, which the NICU continues to use today as a marker for increased risk of infection and inflammation, and are looking to improve it by adding respiratory and oxygen level analysis.