Neonatal Critical Care Transport Research: Understanding the Unknown Between Departure and Arrival

Each year, thousands of newborns worldwide require emergency transport from the hospital where they are born to receive higher-level care at a tertiary center. Newborn transport is conducted via road, fixed-wing, and rotary-wing aircraft. During transport, these babies are often exposed to higher-than-desirable levels of noise, acceleration and deceleration forces, vibration, and significant variations in ambient temperature.

Transported preterm infants have a substantially increased risk of brain injury (intraventricular hemorrhage) and death. Term infants who experience asphyxia at birth are significantly more likely to achieve therapeutic temperature if born outside a tertiary center and have a higher likelihood of increased seizure burden. Transported infants also face an increased risk of early-life deterioration compared to those not transported. These examples demonstrate that babies requiring intensive care and transport early in life are at risk of severe complications and long-term consequences.

Neonatal transport research is an emerging field. Given that these infants are at considerable risk of long-term health deficits, active investigation is urgently needed to understand the differences between transported and non-transported infants and to develop strategies to improve outcomes in this population. This special edition aims to engage with clinical investigators and provide a platform for these essential areas of research.

This publication hub for neonatal transport research will include:

• Maternal presentation
• Logistic considerations, including timings and organization of transport services
• Clinical considerations during transport
• Data considerations for research and quality improvement
• Observation and intervention studies targeting or improving outcomes

We welcome diverse publications in neonatal transport, covering various investigative needs and topics, as outlined for authors:

• Describing and understanding the retrieval environment, including physical factors influencing physiology and outcomes
• Describing the management of thermal care and optimization in the retrieval environment, including:
Therapeutic hypothermia for asphyxia
Maintaining euthermia in preterm or low birth weight infants
• Neuroprotection: understanding risks and improving neurological outcomes in preterm infants and those treated for birth asphyxia
• Respiratory management in the retrieval environment
• Optimizing pain and discomfort during transport
• Perinatal profiles of transported infants and management of at-risk in utero transfers
• The epidemiology and management of surgical infant transfers
• The epidemiology and management of cardiac infant transfers
• Preclinical research to inform neonatal transport care
• Interventional studies in neonatal transport

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Neonates; Transport; Outcomes; Preterm; Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.