Introduction:
Advancing neonatal care demands innovations that address both technological and clinical blind spots. In our recent Lancet Child & Adolescent Health reply, we highlight an often-overlooked dimension of neonatal safety: the need for true precision in intravenous infusion therapy. At ultra-low flow rates (<5 mL/h), even minimal deviations can have outsized consequences. Delays, hidden occlusions, or backflow may silently undermine stabilisation — even when state-of-the-art infusion pumps are in use.
To confront this challenge, we propose real-time infusion monitoring as a context-neutral innovation that brings visibility, precision, and equity to neonatal care. Making infusion therapy truly visible represents a crucial step forward, because precision medicine begins with understanding what actually reaches the infant.
Authors:
- Matheus van Rens, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Radboudumc Amalia Children’s Hospital, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Robin van der Lee, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Infermi Hospital, Rimini, Italy
- Giovanni Barone, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Infermi Hospital, Rimini, Italy
- Fiammetta Piersigilli, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Louvain University, Saint Luc, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
