Dr. Amy Mackay, a fellow in neonatology at UNC, is interested in newborn resuscitation practices in low- and middle-income countries. She graduated from University of Alabama School of Medicine in 2017 and completed pediatric residency and chief resident year at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (Eastern Virginia Medical School) in Norfolk, Virginia. Additionally, Mackay completed a Fulbright year conducting cancer research in Lausanne, Switzerland. During medical school, she conducted tuberculosis and HIV research in Cape Town, South Africa. As a global scholar, Mackay will be involved with establishment of a newborn resuscitation registry with health facilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her sub project will evaluate a platform to support remote real-time guidance of newborn resuscitations. Dr. Mackay’s mentor is Jackie Patterson, MD, MPH, attending physician in the UNC Division of Neonatology and PI of the Laerdal Foundation Program Award.
Abstract:
One million newborns die each year in the first 24 hours after birth. Most of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the first 24 hours after birth, neonatal deaths are predominately caused by intrapartum events, such as failing to breathe at birth. One-third of these intrapartum-related deaths could be averted with basic resuscitation. Gaps exist in providing basic resuscitation in LMICs, contributing to increased mortality.
We established a resuscitation registry at two health facilities in Kinshasa, DRC. To study effective interventions to improve basic resuscitation at the time of birth, we first needed to build the infrastructure and better understand the current newborn care. The resuscitation registry includes clinical data on all in-born neonates, provider actions at the time of an infant’s birth, neonatal heart rate data, and vital status at birth and the time of discharge. We enrolled 6,369 infants between 9.1.2022 and 8.31.2023. Establishing a newborn resuscitation registry is feasible in a low-resource setting. This resuscitation registry is an essential first step to evaluate strategies for improving resuscitation care.
