Tag Archives: Ethics

The preterm GI tract is not sterile

Posted on 27 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

The FDA are at it again, they seem to be on a mission to go after suppliers of probiotics for preterm babies, and have now attacked Abbott. They appear to have demanded that they stop marketing their probiotic product, as … Continue reading →

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What outcomes matter to parents?

Posted on 25 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

Following on from my 2 recent posts, a new publication from the CHILD-BRIGHT network in Canada, (Synnes A, et al. Redefining Neurodevelopmental Impairment: Perspectives of Very Preterm Birth Stakeholders. Children. 2023;10(5) Open Access). CHILD-BRIGHT being a slightly tortuous acronym derived … Continue reading →

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Shifting the uncertainty a little further: severe early ultrasound abnormalities in the preterm. part 2

Posted on 18 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

In this post, I continue to discuss some of the issues raised in our recent article: Chevallier M, Barrington KJ et al. Decision-making for extremely preterm infants with severe hemorrhages on head ultrasound: Science, values, and communication skills. Semin Fetal … Continue reading →

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Survival after End-of-Life Discussions

Posted on 24 April 2023 by Keith Barrington

Another of the articles that have been keeping me busy over the last couple of months has just been published. Boutillier B, Biran V, Janvier A, Barrington KJ. Survival and Long-term Outcomes of Children Who Survived After End-of-Life Decisions in … Continue reading →

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Time to stop placebo injections in neonatal research projects

Posted on 27 October 2022 by Keith Barrington

Randomized controlled trials are the bedrock of evidence-based medicine. If a treatment has a good theoretical rationale, and preclinical data showing efficacy, the only way to prove efficacy in the human is to randomise patients to the treatment, compared to … Continue reading →

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More randomized trials of magic in newborn infants

Posted on 26 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

The scientific basis of neonatology is vitally important to me, the enormous advances that we have made have all been founded on basic and clinical science. So I can get quite agitated when I see articles reporting trials of interventions … Continue reading →

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Does knowing the genetic abnormality change management? And should it?

Posted on 22 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

Just after I pressed “post” for a recent addition to the blog, I saw this appear. (Callahan KP, et al. Influence of Genetic Information on Neonatologists’ Decisions: A Psychological Experiment. Pediatrics. 2022;149). It illustrates some major problems in how neonatologists … Continue reading →

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Should every baby have their Genome sequenced?

Posted on 19 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

Annie Janvier, John Lantos and I have just published an article about Next Generation Sequencing (Janvier A, et al. Next generation sequencing in neonatology: what does it mean for the next generation? Hum Genet. 2022), which is a common way … Continue reading →

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What do we tell families at 22 weeks?

Posted on 28 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

When we counsel families about the potential outcomes for infants born profoundly preterm, I think we would all agree that we should be honest, transparent and truthful. Which includes, I would suggest, truthfulness about our own local results, as well … Continue reading →

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Active intensive care at 22 weeks gestation

Posted on 27 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

Even the New England Journal are getting in on the act (Lee CD, et al. Neonatal Resuscitation in 22-Week Pregnancies. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(4):391-3), I guess that someone talked to the editors about the practice variation in resuscitation of … Continue reading →

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