Latifa Hospital launches Neonatal Electronic Registry system

The monitoring system is the first-of-its-kind in the region.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 11, 2014: Latifa Hospital recently launched the ‘Dubai Neonatal Electronic Registry System(DNER) which will help in collecting data of all neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care units(NICUs) in Dubai.

The registry is the first-of-its-kind in the region and aims to help collect data which will be used to improve care and outcomes of neonates as well as help in facilitating evidence-based research on neonatal care and management,” said Dr Ahmad bin Kalban, CEO of Hospital Services Sector at the DHA.

Dr Abdulla Khayat, CEO of Latifa Hospital, said: “Initially this project has been  implemented for  hospitals in Dubai but in the next phase we aim to expand this project to include all neonatal units in the UAE. Neonatal care and management is an important area of medicine that caters to the youngest members of our society and such a data collection tool is vital to help neonatologists and researchers better understand outcomes and device methods to further improve care for neonates.”

Presently the hospitals on board for this project are Latifa, Dubai, Hatta, American, Zulekha, Canadian and Garhoud. The web based online data collection system has a list of predefined data which was designed with the help of neonatologists from Latifa Hospital and the DHA IT department. All hospitals in Dubai participating in this project have been provided access to log their data in and the system only accepts completed data.

Dr. Mahmoud Saleh Elhalik, Consultant Neonatologist and Head of Pediatric Department at Latifa Hospital, said: “This registry will help determine the frequency and distribution of critically ill neonates in the UAE, it will stimulate and facilitate research on neonatal critical illness and its management. Moreover, it will also help all neonatal units in the UAE compare outcomes and develop indicators for standard of care in neonatal units.”

He added that the database will also help study the mortality and some morbidities of babies admitted to NICUs in participating hospitals as well as outcomes of babies with very low birth weight. It will also help calculate the perinatal, neonatal, and stillbirth mortality rates of inborn babies. “The benefits of this database will be seen in all aspects of neonatal care, research, capacity building and management.”