Sepsis diagnostic device Added To NEST360 Newborn Technology Landscape
Written by: Carrie Noxon
Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of newborn mortality and must be identified and treated quickly to ensure survival and reduce morbidity. However, it is not easy to diagnose. A recent scoping review highlighted infection detection as a critical gap in addressing healthcare-associated infections.
Care for sepsis.
The standard of care for treating infection in neonates is to treat while simultaneously screening for sepsis with blood, urine, spinal fluid cultures, and microscopy until studies suggest that infection is unlikely to be present. Unfortunately, under this standard of care, even when clinicians use guidelines to determine which infants to treat with antibiotics, many more babies receive antibiotics than those who genuinely have serious bacterial infections and need antibiotics.
The solution to using antibiotics more sparingly depends upon reliable, rapid diagnostic testing for sepsis. Unfortunately, there is limited availability of microbiological diagnostic testing in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), which presents a significant barrier to safe antibiotic use and shortening courses of treatment.
Newborn Technology Landscape addition.
A new technology has been added to the sepsis diagnostic product category in the 7th edition of the NEST360 Newborn Technology Landscape. FINDER® by Baebies is the first sepsis diagnostic device featured and is an ultra-rapid, fully integrated platform for use with neonatal populations. According to the device developer, the system is intended to be used in moderate complexity settings by healthcare professionals.
Details about NEST360 technology.
Please note that technologies within this product category have not yet been evaluated by the NEST360 team for inclusion as a NEST360 Qualified Technology. To learn more about what it means to be “NEST360 Qualified” and how the technologies are qualified by NEST360, please click here.
Acknowledgment and disclaimer: Baebies research reported in this article is supported by CARB-X. CARB-X’s funding for this project is sponsored by the Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by awards from Wellcome Trust and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of CARB-X or any of its funders.
