Dr. Spitzer presents “Big Data in the NICU”.

The NEC Society is at the Preemie Parent Alliance Summit in Phoenix, Arizona this weekend. We just heard a great talk from Dr. Alan Spitzer with MEDNAX/Pediatrix Medical Group on “Big Data in the NICU”. Their network of NICUs cares for over 20% of the nation’s NICU patients. By maintaining and analyzing the nation’s largest database of information on patient treatments and outcomes, they have developed toolkits and protocols for treating various conditions. Since implementing these protocols, they have seen dramatic improvements in outcomes. For example, they have reduced the incidence of NEC in their network NICUs by over 40%! They also make their database available to researchers and clinicians for further study. Go big data!