Stefan Johansson

Four years ago, I got an idea to start an Internet community for neonatal staff. At that time I was a member of a Swedish Mac-computer community and had realized that web-based professional networks can become great resources. (BTW, this is pre-historical times of today's Social Media-hype.) I convinced a few of my friends in the NICU at Karolinska to spend MUCH time to set the whole thing up... The 11th of May 2006 was the official opening! It is hard to summarize the development during the past four years, but it is a fact that 99nicu has grown steadily. On average, 2 new member have registered every day since the start. We now count more than 200 unique visitors and more than 4000 page visits. Per day! But, 99nicu is more than numbers. Personally, I do not care about web statistics, when I think about what a community for neonatal staff can achieve. With the bulk of knowledge that has been shared here, for the good of the tiny babies that we all care for in NICUs over the world. I know that advice given in the virtual NICU has had major impact on the outcomes for some infants. That matters to me. The future... well... think about 99nicu in evolutionary terms. We all (you and me and every single member) build this community. What happens here, depends on us. The funding... I am doctor, not a salesman, and there has not been a crowd of investors knocking on the door. Even though I have taken a big bite of the cake myself, 99nicu has also been funded by individual members making small donations (become a supporting member here!) and by educational grants from commercial companies. These latter contributions have been essential for our maintenance costs. Thanks! Finally, I would like to acknowledge: all members who have contributed with ideas, advice and supportive words the original Team for believing in this crazy idea in the first place the current Team - without your efforts, 99nicu would not be the same. Maybe not at all! wife and son for understanding that 99nicu is my contribution to a better world Greeting to all of you! /Stefan PS. Celibrate the Four Year Anniversary in the Lounge!

Time again! On the 11th of May we can celibrate the 4th anniversary! Soon... Thanks in advance to EVERYONE that has worked hard, sent us supportive greetings, and have become friends during these four years. I have elaborated in my blog, about what happened. And why! Best wishes from our virtual Headquarter!

Today is Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you!

Hoppla! Typo! I meant that the two studies investigated blood withdrawal from UAC and UVC respectively. One may think that presampling from the venous return may have less impact on hemodynamics than sampling from aorta. We typically withdraw 0.5 ml from the smallest UAC. I think this could be a topic for a nice experimental study: design/build experimental blood vessels/a vascular tree, flow blood through it, apply a catheter with drip and then pre-sample blood in various volumes to see how much volume is needed to withdraw for, for example, reliable electrolytes. Piece of cake!

One major difference between these two studies is that blood withdrawal from umbilical vein and umbilical artery catheters were studies, respectively. I think the point is rather that sampling may matter (volume and/or time). For a tiny premiee drawing 2 ml of blood may correspond to several % of the total blood volume.

Hi! One should always try to minimize pre sample blood withdrawal, since hemodynamics change during blood withdrawal. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17937686 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16373299 Pace of withdrawal seems to matter too: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12509598 For the smallest infants with 2.5G UAC we typically withdraw <1 ml.

BTW, right now I am spending two days with the Swe Med Journal at http://en.djuronaset.com/ Really nice place, they have a lecture room for 400 people, and can house 280 people in single rooms. A bit outside Stockholm but in the archipelag.

Thanks for filling the schedule up! I have communincated with JACK/Habib. Maybe it would be good to focus on a few major topics (3-4), have several lectures on that topics, finishing with a panel discussion. We have started a Wave (Google Wave) about the schedule. Hesham, do you have Wave, if not I can send you an invite!

I don't read many blogs, but I follow The Premie Experiment (http://thepreemieexperiment.blogspot.com/) and Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/) Still, there is one neonatal blog that I certainly miss, Neonatal Doc (http://neonataldoc.blogspot.com/) Whoever this person is, I would like to read more! If this whoever person reads this, please email me personally at stefan.johansson@ki.se would love to hear more from you and to offer you a anonymeous blog space here at 99nicu

Very interesting article, indeed! I had not heard about the potential benefits of Xenon at all, this is completely new to me! Will be interesting to follow future research, I know prof Marianne Thoresen is a star. (Norwegian star, living in the UK)

Hi from Sweden, warming up after a very heavy winter! Why a transplant? Is it not possible to do resect the atretic part and do an end-end anastomosis? (I have no personal experience myself from intestinal transplants. The only patient group I have seen that could be candidates are those infants short bowel syndrome. They all have long-term parenteral nutrition when they graudate from neonatal care, and to my knowledge noone has yet needed transplants later in childhood).

Great to hear!

Study "based on a Harris poll for Intel of 2,315 people in the United States. " Whatever a Harris poll is - this is not EBM, I'm sure! Intel just want us to get faster machines. Personally, I think the new technologies are influencing us a lot, also in negative ways. But, that stress is more related to being reachable, to have less sharp boundaries between work and leisure etc. Technostress! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technostress Bottom-line - this is not a complete joke, but a partial one!

I would really like to have an Ipad. If anyone from the US is visiting Stockholm in the near future, and would like to "import" an Ipad for me, please get in touch! johansson@mac.se or info@99nicu.org or PM or anything

here comes an updated version of a possible/preliminary schedule. Please feel free to revise and re-upload (add as attachment)! schedule_3ds..doc

It would be interesting to hear if you managed to recruit responders here. And, I am personally also very interested to hear about the results from your survey. Important topic!

I am curious to know more about Ipad use in neonatal care and research. I read about the application "Papers", which can be used for collections of PDFs. http://mekentosj.com/papers/ipad/ Please share your experiences here! PS. We are also interested to have reviews of the actual Ipad, medical/research software etc. If you're interested, please email info@99nicu.org

I live in Sweden. That's a non-Ipad-land. Probably for a long time. (2011?) I just browsed several of the reviews from Over There, and even Walt Mossberg at Wall Street Journal likes it. And David Pogue at NYT wrote two reviews, one for "techies" and one for everyone else! Come on Jobs - get the Ipad localised in Swedish (with åäö etc) and send me one! Video review.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y7_3H5B7DQ

You all know about Facebook and most of you reading this is probably members too. Do we need our own Fan Club on Facebook? We would be able to meet many more people. But, we have our own community here. What do you think about pros/cons? I am not so good at Facebooking ,(inactive member...), but would you be in interested to administer a 99nicu FB Page? BTW, I just found the fan page of Neonatology Reviews http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21102202700

I think it would be lots of work to coordinate three days of rather short lectures. And expensive, given travels and hotels more maybe 25 speakers. But, maybe topics related to EBM deserve longer lectures, say 40 min lectures with 20 min discussion? What do you think about a 3-day plan (see attachment). 19 speakers in all.

I guess you may already have read about the paper in Nature Medicine showing that trombocytes contribute to duct closure. A "Research News" note is posted here! Nice paper, not often neonatal research finds its way into a Nature journal! Biologically plausible. Would be interesting to think about how this could be studied in clinical settings? Interventions?

What do you think about a prel time scheme like this? In all, 18 lectures, each lasting 25 (or 20) min + 10 (or 15) min discussion schedule..doc

I think early June would be better than Jan-March - weather-wise Sweden is much more welcoming that time of the year. How about 3-4 June 2011? Any know conflicts?

We are nourishing an idea of a 99nicu conference. About evidence-based neonatology ("today and tomorrow"). In Stockholm The idea is to have a two-day program of shorter lectures, i.e. about 15-20 lectures would be sufficient. What topics and speakers would YOU like to see in the programme?

@fcardona I completely agree, one gets feed up. But I watch only to keep the family company The link is great! I read about the medical advisor in BMJ recently, cannot find the link now though. Mad Men, that's my series now!