: The Institute for Disability Studies (IDS): Mississippi's University Center for Excellence in Disabilities; one county acute care hospital, Forrest General Hospital; and a private neonatology practice, Southern Mississippi Neonatology Group are proposing Project CONNECT (Creating Online NICU Networks to Educate, Consult, and Team). Through Project CONNECT, this partnership proposes to develop, implement, and evaluate a cooperative effort using Health Information Technology (HIT) to facilitate a continuum of appropriate medical and developmental care for infants most at-risk for long-term neurodevelopmental problems. Project CONNECT's plan will focus on the use of HIT to ensure appropriate care from the time infants are admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units in acute care facilities through the transition process to community-based health care services. It seeks to develop a viable, cost-effective mechanism for information sharing, decision-making and professional collaboration to ensure that the benefits of early developmental care are attained during the inpatient NICU stay and maintained through developmental surveillance after the infant leaves the hospital and enters the mainstream of community care. To meet this goal, IDS and its partners will work with multiple health care providers throughout South Mississippi (including acute care hospitals, clinics, health care providers, and other health delivery organizations) to plan for, implement, and evaluate effective HIT tools for immediate access to complete and timely health care information about infants who are the most at-risk for long-term neurodevelopmental problems. Project CONNECT seeks to utilize these tools in diverse health care settings and develop a coordinated plan for the use of HIT to meet the following objectives: 1) Use telemedicine technologies (secure peer-to-peer videoconferencing) to enhance and expand the use of evidence-based developmental care practices in NICUs in acute care hospitals in Mississippi through training, technical assistance, and consultation among medical and applicable medically-related staff; 2) Develop and maintain a searchable multimedia information database (Developmental Surveillance Interactive Information System-DSIIS) containing developmental surveillance information to meet multiple asynchronous (anytime) training and information-sharing purposes including continuing medical education, parent education, demonstration to primary care providers, and decision support; 3) Develop multimedia Personal Developmental Records for infants at highest risk for long-term neurodevelopmental problems in order to better document areas warranting close developmental surveillance and more effective information sharing among care providers.
