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Ask HN: What are interesting technology problems in neonatology?
My wife recently gave birth to our first child whom had to subsequently spend a month in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I am now in awe of the whole world that exists to help babies transition from the womb to the real world. Are there any interesting computational or technolog-related problems in the neonatology space? I would love to donate my time to this specific cause.
- mchannon 8y agoWhile this is a noble thought, don't forget to give thought to your wife and baby. Informed spousal support is crucial to warding off postpartum depression, and keeping the marriage healthy requires a lot more work when there's a rugrat in the house. Ultrasound technology definitely has room for improvement. There's a bit of quackery going around ultrasound departments where they will miscalculate your fetus' conception date by a week or two, measure the fetus' femur length, and then scare you into ordering an extremely expensive blood test, not covered by health insurance, to rule out Down syndrome. This is based on some old research that correlates a femur length ratio very weakly to an increased risk, when certain ethnicities frequently occupy that ratio without any increased risk, and miscalculating the number of weeks can also throw normal kids into the danger region due to the necessary precision of the measurements involved. We were guilted, heavily, into ordering one of these tests by our local and otherwise reputable hospital complex. While we weren't dumb (or wealthy) enough to order the test, it did cause substantial stress for mom, and I wonder how that impacted the baby. Even if we had proof positive that our kid had Down (he doesn't), knowing wouldn't have changed anything, since abortion at such a late term for what may be a minor issue is a nonstarter, and I suspect it would be for most expecting parents. Just a thinly-veiled way for ultrasound practices to scare you into paying them hundreds of dollars in commissions, at the expense of your mental health and that of your baby. Disgusting and amazing that it hasn't made the news, because from what I found on the internet, it's extremely common. If you want to help, maybe find a way to cut out this depraved practice.