FitBaby
March 1st, 2010 | Published in Projects
Student Researchers: Sen Hirano, Sunyoung Park, Leslie Liu
Collaborators: Julia Rich (UCI Medical Center), Dana Gravem (UCI Medical School)
PIs: Gillian Hayes, Karen Cheng (CDU), Dan Cooper (UCI Medical School)
Premature birth is associated with long term health impairments including neurological and cognitive deficiencies, chronic lung disease, and altered growth patterns of lean, fat, and bone tissues. Furthermore, parents of premature infants may experience excessive stress, post-partum depression, and other challenges associated with the birth of and caring for their child.
We are designing, developing, and deploying an innovative and feasible mobile solution for collecting infant and caregiver ODLs, sharing these data with their providers, and visualizing and summarizing these data for both the parents and clinicians caring for these children. This system, FitBaby, has been shown to be helpful in preliminary pilot studies, and now we are expanding its capabilities. Candidate ODLs include length and weight of the baby, feeding and sleeping schedules, and self-reported data about infant well-being and caregiver stress. We are using a participatory design approach that includes clinicians, parents, social workers, and other relevant stakeholders. This work includes ongoing collaboration with the UCI Medical Center Department of Pediatrics and Information Services Department to overcome clinical and technical challenges in our design, development, and evaluation as well as in planning for long-term impacts to the clinical workflow.