A simple checklist created by a Canberra doctor is saving the lives on premature babies here in Australia, and thousands of kilometres away. As well as giving neo-natal specialists more support to do their job, it is also giving families confidence that their tiny bundles of joy are in the safest hands.
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00:00 Every day, Catherine Musgrove is amazed by her daughter Gianna.
00:06 Gianna's start to life wasn't easy. She was born at 25 weeks gestation, weighing just 680 grams.
00:14 When she was born I didn't get to hold her obviously because she was so little.
00:18 So they took her away and started running through the checklist.
00:23 That checklist is the work of this man, Dr Tejasvi Chaudhuri, the Deputy Director of Neonatology at Canberra Hospital,
00:32 and a self-confessed checklist fanatic. He says they're...
00:37 Simple, easy to use and can improve outcomes.
00:40 Dr Chaudhuri developed the checklist for his neonatal team to use when babies are born extremely prematurely.
00:49 It helps staff know exactly where to be, what to do and when, so every newborn has the best chance of survival.
00:58 So the EEPROM checklist is like gold. It is amazing.
01:02 It allows for us to have a clear plan as to who's going to take control of the airway,
01:06 who's going to take control of measuring observations, who's going to take control of supporting the family.
01:12 It became standard protocol in 2016 and since then mortality rates have dropped.
01:18 So the reduction was from around 20% to 5%, so that's 16% overall, but if you think about it, that's a significant reduction.
01:28 In an unexpected twist, a neonatal team in Jakarta discovered the checklist online and quickly started using it.
01:36 In less than two years, their survival rate for extremely preterm babies has increased by 15%.
01:43 It's really happy for us, for me, for the doctor and also for the nurse.
01:48 It feels good to know that what we do over here, something as simple as this, has an impact on babies globally.
01:56 As for Catherine, it's three and a half years since Gianna was born, but she can still remember the confidence she felt seeing the checklist in action.
02:06 I mean it was still a scary, stressful situation and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, but it made a bad situation much more manageable.
02:16 A simple strategy that's saving lives.
02:19 lives.
02:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]