Department of Pediatrics

Neonatology

 

Neonatology's mission to provide the highest quality patient care is supported by state-of-the-art facilities and experienced, highly trained health care professionals in the Doernbecher Neonatal Care Center. The DNCC's environment is developmentally supportive for the high-risk newborn and addresses family needs. The Center supports new technologies essential for care of newborns. Physicians consult with health care professionals about referrals.

The Neonatology Division staff includes seven staff neonatologists and four fellows in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. They are in charge of the 46-bed Doernbecher Neonatal Care Center (DNCC). The DNCC admits more than 1000 newborns each year.

Faculty members care for patients, participate in teaching and outreach education, and have specific areas of expertise and interest. Doernbecher has the only Infant Monitoring Services program in Oregon, which provides interpretation of infant sleep studies, follow-up for infants on home monitors, and counseling about sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory control disorders.

Other clinical and research interests include genetic disorders of the newborn, the use of DNA techniques to aid in the diagnosis of neonatal infections, the role of the dystrophin protein (responsible for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy) in the function of the heart and eyes, the effects of birth trauma on the newborn, pharmacology in newborns, metabolism of narcotics in the fetus and newborn, fetal lung growth, and the role of pulmonary hypoplasia in newborn lung diseases.