Family Integrated Care with Neolook: Redefining Neonatal Care
Transforming Neonatal Services for Families
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is building a state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(NICU), the first of its kind in the UK. Designed to revolutionise neonatal services across the
Northwest, the new unit will provide the highest level of care to the region’s most vulnerable
babies. Central to the design is the Family Integrated Care (FIC) model, which empowers
parents to become active carers for their babies alongside clinical staff, fostering a more supportive and collaborative environment.
The Challenge: Balancing Family-Centred Care with Clinical Visibility
The new NICU introduces a family-focused layout, with each baby placed in an individual patient room connected to a family room. This innovative setup is a significant departure from the current model at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where babies are placed four to a room, and family accommodation is not on-site.
However, this new approach raised a critical concern: the compromised line of sight (LOS) for
clinicians and nursing staff. With babies in individual rooms, staff would no longer have constant visual access to patients, posing challenges for monitoring and timely intervention.
The Solution: Neolook’s Screen 2 Screen Professional
To address this, Alder Hey’s Innovation team conducted technology scoping exercises and
identified Neolook, a company specialising in medical-grade livestream solutions for neonatal
care. Their Screen 2 Screen Professional (S2S) solution emerged as the ideal fit.
The S2S solution includes:
- Cameras placed near each baby’s incubator to provide a real-time livestream of the baby.
- Displaying live video feeds on centralised staff bays, approved handheld devices, and
- existing monitors at Alder Hey.
- Reliable connectivity that aligns with the physical and mental demands of the family integrated care model.
This solution ensures that clinicians maintain visual access to all patients while supporting the transition to a more family-centred care approach.
Collaborative Development and Progress
Over a 6-month project, Alder Hey collaborated closely with Neolook, involving clinical teams, building developers, and medical engineers to:
- Conduct workshops and demonstrations to refine the solution.
- Design and develop the software and technology required for seamless integration.
- Ensure the product meets regulatory standards as a Class I CE-marked MDR Medical Device, making it fully scalable and compatible with existing hospital systems.
Ongoing Work and Future Impact
While the project remains ongoing due to evolving requirements for the new NICU, the deployment of the S2S Professional solution is a crucial step in delivering the FIC model at Alder Hey. This innovative technology will ensure clinicians can monitor patients effectively while enabling families to take an active role in their baby’s care.
Alder Hey continues to explore and implement new technologies to support this transformative family-centred approach, setting a new standard for neonatal care in the UK.