Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on High-Risk Infant Follow-Up (HRIF) Programs: A Survey of Academic Programs

Sanjeet Panda; Rashmi Somu; Nathalie Maitre; Garrett Levin; Ajay Pratap Singh

doi:10.3390/children8100889

Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on High-Risk Infant Follow-Up (HRIF) Programs: A Survey of Academic Programs

Children (Basel). 2021 Oct 6;8(10):889. doi: 10.3390/children8100889.

Authors

Sanjeet Panda¹, Rashmi Somu^{1

2}, Nathalie Maitre³, Garrett Levin¹, Ajay Pratap Singh¹

Affiliations

¹ Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso 4800 Alberta Avenue, El Paso, TX 79905, USA.
² Harbor UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA 90502, USA.
³ Director of Early Development and Cerebral Palsy Research, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.

Abstract

Objective: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning and services of academic high-risk infant follow-up (HRIF) clinics throughout North America.

Study design: Prospective 25-question questionnaire survey through REDCAP links that was sent over 10 weeks, to 105 US and 10 Canadian programs. Finally, 59 of 105 US programs and 5 of 10 Canadian responses were analyzed using SAS version 9.4.

Results: In the US, 67% of programs reported closures between 1-5 months, whereas in Canada 80% of programs closed for 1-3 months. In the US 86% of programs provided telemedicine visits and only 42.5% provided multidisciplinary HRIF telemedicine visits. We enumerated innovative approaches specifically for the conduct of Telemedicine visits, the need for the standardization of various tests and services in a telemedicine setting, and to emphasize the urgent need for more government funding to improve follow-up and developmental services to this fragile group of newborns.

Keywords: Covid-19; High Risk Infant Follow-Up (HRIF) Clinic; coronavirus; early childhood development; neonates; preterm neonates; telemedicine.