Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

Answer: When babies are born prematurely, parents can experience varying degrees of stress. Feeling supported by a care team while also being in the comfort of their own home with their new family member would be ideal — and Children’s Minnesota is doing just that.

Originally launched as a pilot study in 2021 at Children’s Minnesota St. Paul, the Children’s in Home App-Based Monitoring Program, or CHAMP, is now available at the Minneapolis Children’s Minnesota campus, as well as the Children’s Minnesota neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Mercy hospital in Coon Rapids.

Eligible newborns in the three hospitals’ NICUs and the Minneapolis hospital’s Special Care Nursery can go home sooner and remain monitored the Children’s Minnesota neonatology team.

CHAMP allows certain babies born preterm to be released from the hospital and monitored at home by the hospital’s care team. When families leave the hospital, they are provided with a weighing scale and secure access to an app for the caregiver’s smartphone or tablet. Parents or caregivers can input information into the app where the neonatal team can review it.

Babies eligible for CHAMP are gradually learning to feed and are considered generally healthy. The newborns have a nasogastric tube (NG) at the time of hospital discharge and are sent home with a combination of tube and oral feedings. The care team trains families that enroll in the program on correct NG positioning and oral feeding techniques, as well as how to perform CPR.