Calmer: a robot for managing acute pain effectively in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

For preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit, early exposure to repeated procedural pain is associated with negative effects on the brain. Skin-to-skin contact with parents has pain-mitigating properties, but parents may not always be available during procedures. Calmer, a robotic device that simulates key pain-reducing components of skin-to-skin contact, including heart beat sounds, breathing motion, and touch, was developed to augment clinical pain management.

Objective

Our objective was to evaluate the initial efficacy of Calmer for mitigating pain in preterm infants. We hypothesized that, compared to babies who received a human touch-based treatment, facilitated tucking, infants on Calmer would have lower behavioural and physiological pain indices

SUBMITTER: Holsti L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6455690 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature