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Blogs

Featured Entries

The Weight of Small Things

When the Answers Arrives Before the Questions

There's a scene that keeps coming back to me since I heard Professor Madalena Patrício, of the University of Lisbon's Faculty of Medicine, speak about artificial intelligence in health professions education. It isn't a scene from her talk, exactly — it's from Pluribus, a series I watched recently that, somehow, found a new way to be read in light of what she said. In the show, a signal from space carries the code of a virus that fuses almost all of humanity into a single consciousness. At first
Food for thought

Breastmilk protein in cows and humans

The process of evolution resulted in breastmilk perfectly suited to the survival and developmental needs of the newborn of that species. Mammalian milk composition varies during the day, and over the days, weeks and months of breastfeeding. All species vary in macronutrient, micronutrient and bionutrient composition. Bionutrients (also known as immuno-nutrients, or functional components) are key to many of the benefits of getting the ‘right’ breastmilk, and there are 1000s of them - we’ll get to
Food for thought

Preterm infants need more energy than cycling the Tour de France

Previous posts described that very preterm infants ex-utero are ‘programmed’ to grow at a similar rate to the fetus before birth, gaining about 2g/kg/day of protein (as well as gaining fat, water, minerals etc. etc.). A 25 week infants increases her birthweight by more than 400% (500g to 2500g) over 3 months of NICU stay. Thankfully, that rate of weight gain isn’t sustained into early infancy and protein needs dramatically reduce as the fetus/baby approaches term. Breastmilk alone cannot meet pr
99nicu News

Building Bridges: 99nicu.org Welcomes NeoIPC

We are excited to share news that 99nicu.org has begun collaborating with NeoIPC, a European Union-funded initiative addressing hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance in neonatal units. What is NeoIPC? Nearly 1 in 10 European newborns requires NICU admission in their first days of life, which can expose them to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. NeoIPC is a European Union-funded research initiative focused on improving infection prevention and control (IPC) in NICUs. The project b
99nicu News

99NICU Becomes a Partner of the CEPAS Conference 28-31 Oct 2026

We are pleased to announce that the 99NICU Community has become an official partner of the CEPAS Conference, 28-31 Oct 2026. CEPAS is an international conference dedicated to advancing knowledge and collaboration in neonatal and pediatric care, a new biennial meeting of the European Academy of Paediatrics (EAP) and the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR). In addition, the Global Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (GFCNI) is co-organiser. Through this partnership, 99NICU will
Department of Brilliant Ideas

I got a new Job!

I have got a new job , from the 16th of March I will be the medical editor-in-chief at the Swedish Medical Journal (Läkartidningen). It may seem as the greatest of surprises, but those who know me are not surprised. Since my late teens, I have been involved in various info/media projects (local newspapers, student papers, free-lance writing, 99nicu...). And, I am really looking forward to this new challenge! During the recruitment process I questioned myself many times how I would feel ab
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Hot Topics 2008!

I am at the Hot Topics congress. Despite my severe jet-lag... it's a great congress, on clinically relevant aspects of neonatal care. If you have the opportunity... come here next year! For example; hypothermia - it's here to stay, I am sure. And, I must admit I have been a sceptic, but taking the TOBY trial together with the older trials... it's no doubt of the improved outcome in terms of increased survival, free of disability. Still, many of treated infants will have to live with sequels o
Department of Brilliant Ideas

99nicu goes commercial - NOT!

A friend of mine went into journalism after his medical studies, and he is now editor-in-chief of a large newspaper. We had sushi a few weeks ago, and among other things we discussed my favourite spare-time project... the 99nicu community. One issue is what I believe is a conflict how we run 99nicu: the idea of true independence (from the market) and the fact the funding is needed to maintain the community. My friend enlightened me how the media world works: although information wants t
Department of Brilliant Ideas

"Small Child Foundation" - the latest "kamikaze" project

I am a "project-oriented" person, i.e. I get a lot of "brilliant ideas", and try to realize some of them. With variable success/failure. Another side of this personality trait is that I get bored quite easily, if things get... boring The latest project I took the initiative is... a large Swedish charity foundation for peri-/neonatal research: Lilla barnets fond (Small child foundation). We (me, five other neonatologists, and one premie-parent) are just about to finish the formal paperwork an
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Twins, low birth weight, diabetes and Reuters News Agency.

Our latest research paper, about low birth weight and later risk of developing type 2 diabetes, was recently published in Epidemiology. (Abstract - click here!) I feel relieved, it was a lot of hard work to do the study, and not the least, to get it published. Therefore, I got happy when Reuters News Agency wrote about it (click here or here to read the article!) There are many reports showing a link between low birth weight and type 2 diabetes; the lower the birth weight, the higher the ri
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Neonatal Olympics

The Olympic games are over, and I am leaving the TV sofa. In spite of the politicopropagandistic extravaganzas, I think the games were great: lots of fighting spirit, fantastic achievements, the chaotic mix of emotions. Some people were winners (probably not only those who travelled home with gold medals), and some people felt like losers (also some with medals in their luggage, I'm sure). Although sports is only a small part of life (for most of us) I think sports contains most bits and piec
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Kafka on the Shore - Nb. 1 summer holiday book

I recently read an article about Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist. I had never heard of him before but this man is a literature "Mega-star"! (Which tells more about me than about the fame of Murakami) While reading about Murakami, I felt this is a good person. We had things in common! Integrity. Sense of humour. Wife's always right. Likes jogging and vinyl records. And Twin Peaks. So, I bought his book "Kafka on the Shore" to bring on our summer holiday trip. I have only read the fir
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Babies online!

"Get real - get online" - that seems to apply also to newborn infants! Our hospital (with the largest number of newborns/year, in Sweden at least) as adopted an increasingly popular feature - web-babies! There's a camera installed below the roof in the waiting room for the doctors health check - parents can just put their newborn baby below it, press the "click" button and then the "get online" button. Good or bad... I guess, not too bad anyway http://www.ds.se/Web/NormalPage____42
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Parenthood - a human right?

Most of us want to become parents. But, is it a human right to reproduce? Some people may argue in favour, but I am not sure I would. Despite the importance of reproduction itself (for all species, incl mammalians like Homo Sapiens), nothing can be taken for granted. In neonatal medicine we know that normality is not a 100% state, sometimes the other side of the coin shows up too. Generally, I would argue that we regard expecting and having children in a more respectful way. At l
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Blogging, the art of... presence

While biking home from work tonight I thought about my blogging habit, or, the lack of a blogging habit! I figured... blogging is the art of being present. And there has not been much time for x-tras the last few weeks. I have been heavily involved in the update of the forum software (as you may have noticed... soon we will officially announce a lot of new features...), and clinical work has been demanding. But, as the summer is here, things tend to slow down and I hope to be more present.
Department of Brilliant Ideas

MD, PhD...

I live through a kind of refractory post-doc phase. I defended my thesis last Friday (080418), managed pretty well , the party in the evening was wild and crazy , and I am about to adapt to the new life of being 'MD PhD'. I think I need to 'digest' what has happened. The last few nights, I have had some really strange dreams about things that did (and did not) happen that day. I guess Freud would be delighted to hear about this... It feels good to be back in business again. I am sure some
Department of Brilliant Ideas

my Book, being printed right now...

Yesterday I approved the final proof for my thesis book "Very preterm birth - etiological aspects and short and long term outcomes". It is being printed right NOW and I will have a LARGE stack of books by next week. Will post a photograph. My latest years of hard work and psychological tension will have the ISBN nb 978-91-7357-498-3 If you spend a day in Stockholm on the 18th of April, welcome to my dissertation in Leksellsalen, Karolinska University Hospital. Grand thesis defence in the
Department of Brilliant Ideas

My best /worst list of 2007.

This is my list for 2007... Best research experience... our brilliant study on twins, their birth weights and later risk of type-2 diabetes Worst research experience... four rejections of the manuscript of the brilliant study above... (NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Diabetes...) Best neonatal gossip... how the family Zlatan Ibrahimovic escaped the paparazzi photographers from the maternity ward... (well, this is from 2006, but I heard the story just recently) Most fascinating journey...
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Rationality vs empathy

When speaking to people in non-medical professions about daily life in neonatal care, many people wonder how we cope with everything. This remarkable mix of well-baby-nursery problems, medical and ethical issues in the NICU... and all parents... and their fear, anger and happiness. I do not really know what to respond to such questions, but a bit of the answer might be related to how we combine a rational mind with empathic capabilities. I mean, when standing in front of a newly delivered 25
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Busy... busy... unit...

Heard from a colleague of a rough weekend on-call, in a unit somewhere out there. Generally, for myself I like working really hard... I feel good after a bit of mental flow and manual work But the weekend I was told about must have been hard, as indicated by the number of pediatric subspecialties and units that were also involved: oncology surgery anestesiology nephrology radiology transfusion medicine infectious diseases ECMO... Reflections... professional networks are no
Department of Brilliant Ideas

Grand Opening of the 99nicu Blogging Department

Welcome to the 99nicu Blogs! Given the possibilities to share experiences, thoughts and opinions through a blog, we could not resist to add the latest feature of the software (vBulletin) used for the 99nicu forums. As a 99nicu member, you can start your own neonatal blog here! And write comments in blogs written by other members. Read the announcement in the News forum, download the blog manual and... get started! PS. If you are unfamiliar with blogging, take a look at blogbasics.co

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