Astarte Medical and Arkansas Children's Hospital Partner to Better Understand Feeding Milestones and Metrics for NICU Patients

YARDLEY, Pa., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Astarte Medical, a health intelligence company, announced today it has signed a contract with Arkansas Children's Hospital to implement its NICUtrition® software platform to analyze and understand feeding metrics and milestones and the corresponding growth outcomes for preterm infants in the neonatal ICU (NICU).

More than 380,000 infants in the U.S. are born preterm annually, surviving as early as 22 weeks gestational age. As survival rates for extremely preterm infants improve, attention is now turning to the quality of survival. Optimal nutrition early in life can positively impact not only physical growth, but neurological development as well. Despite accumulating research and increased knowledge of preterm infant nutritional needs, a lack of resources, shared knowledge and time has allowed optimizing feeding practices and nutritional management in the NICU to remain a major challenge for clinicians.

NICUtrition® is a real-time clinical decision support tool designed to address the challenges clinicians face with feeding practices and nutrition management, like malnutrition, suboptimal growth, poor outcomes, and racial disparities in care. NICUtrition® monitors and provides real-time feedback pertaining to the implementation of clinical enteral feeding guidelines. As an approved vendor in Epic's App Orchard, NICUtrition® directly interfaces with Epic and provides an intuitive presentation of feeding, nutrition, and growth-related data.

"We are fortunate to partner with Arkansas Children's Hospital to transform care for preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit," said Tracy Warren, CEO of Astarte Medical. "The NICU team is committed to the adoption of innovative tools that can harness and transform this data into insights that will improve growth and reduce length of stay, getting these infants home to their families sooner."

Astarte Medical and Arkansas Children's Hospital came together through HealthTech Arkansas, an accelerator and early-stage investment fund that recruits worldwide for the most accomplished startups in the areas of digital health, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms and partners them with leading hospitals, health systems, and physician practices in Arkansas.

Arkansas Children's Hospital is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit.

"NICUtrition® helps solve a challenge faced by some of our most vulnerable patients," said Arkansas Children's Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Ashlie Hilbun. "The platform assists our experts by keeping the nutrition path visible so they can make improvements for newborns in real-time."

ABOUT ASTARTE MEDICAL

Astarte Medical is a health intelligence company developing a suite of digital tools and diagnostics to improve the quality of care and quality of life in the first 1000 days, from conception to age 2. With an initial focus on preterm infants, Astarte Medical supports feeding protocols, practice, and decision-making in the neonatal ICU with a suite of digital tools and diagnostics designed to standardize feeding, optimize nutrition, quantify gut health, and support the provision of equitable care. To learn more, visit astartemedical.com.

ABOUT ARKANSAS CHILDREN'S

Arkansas Children's, Inc. is the only healthcare system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' more than 700,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health.

Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit. ACH is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in four pediatric subspecialties (2020—2021) and is one of only five hospitals in the nation that have achieved Magnet Status, ACS Level 1 verification and a Beacon award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS

HealthTech Arkansas is an accelerator and early-stage investment fund that recruits worldwide for the most accomplished startups in the areas of digital health, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Companies accepted into the program are guaranteed at least two pilot projects or clinical trials from among eleven leading hospitals, health systems, and physician practices in Arkansas. Find more information at HealthTechArkansas.com.

SOURCE Astarte Medical

Related Links

http://astartemedical.com