NASC-ITA Project Objectives
The core focus of NASC-ITA is the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to support clinical decision-making, with the following goals:
– Ensure neonatal safety during the critical post-birth period.
– Assist healthcare professionals in the early detection of clinical anomalies.
– Create a unique, high-quality database of neonatal physiological data collected in the first hours of life.
Through these goals, NASC-ITA seeks to bridge neonatal medicine and AI, making advanced technologies practical and accessible in hospital settings.
Technologies and Expected Outcomes
The project will lead to the development of a smart software tool capable of:
– Collecting non-invasive physiological data and metadata from newborns.
– Using AI models to support real-time clinical decisions.
The software will offer two key functionalities:
– Risk Stratification Model (Anomaly Detection): Identifies abnormal behaviors in newborns compared to reference populations.
– Predictive Clinical Model: Utilizes supervised learning to forecast potential developments in neonatal health conditions.
Both models are powered by a comprehensive and high-quality dataset, including vital parameters gathered during SSC, clinical observations, and neonatal anamnesis data.
All data is collected using Howdy Baby, ComfTech’s wearable medical monitoring system designed specifically for neonatal and pediatric care, ensuring both accuracy and comfort for the newborn.
Clinical Collaborations and Partners
The scientific validation of NASC-ITA is ensured by the collaboration of major Italian hospitals:
– Ospedale Ostetrico Ginecologico Sant’Anna (Turin)
– Clinica Mangiagalli Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (Milan)
– Ospedale Isola Tiberina – Gemelli Isola (Rome)
– ASST Lariana (Como)
– Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero (Brescia)
The first project meetings addressed ethical, methodological, and technical aspects of data collection and usage, with a strong focus on inter-hospital collaboration to build an interoperable clinical data ecosystem.
Skin-to-Skin Contact: the foundation of the project
Skin-to-Skin Contact (SSC) between mother and newborn is a practice recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and endorsed by the Italian Society of Neonatology (SIN). It involves placing the newborn on the bare chest of the mother, or, in some cases, the partner, immediately after birth.
SSC has numerous proven benefits:
– Stabilizes temperature, heart rate, and breathing.
– Promotes early and successful breastfeeding.
– Reduces neonatal stress.
– Strengthens mother-newborn bonding.
NASC-ITA enhances this essential practice with cutting-edge technology, boosting clinical effectiveness while preserving its natural intimacy.
Shaping the Future of Neonatal Care with Artificial Intelligence
NASC-ITA represents a significant step forward toward a more intelligent, empathetic, and safe neonatal care system. By combining wearable technologies and advanced algorithms, the project lays the foundation for a human-centered digital healthcare approach from the very beginning of life.
