WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and
Research in Newborn Care

The Department established a Neonatal unit way back in 1962. Over the years it has grown into a full-fledged clinical and academic division of national and regional reputation. The Neonatal Division at the Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, was designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Research in 1997. During the seven years since its inception, the Centre has made significant contribution towards promotion of newborn care at the national and the regional level. The Centre has worked closely with many agencies and institutions including the World Health Organization, Saving Newborn Lives , the Government of India, the State governments and the UNICEF. The Centre has collaborated with several countries in the Region. Our activities included training, advocacy, research, technical support and networking.

Currently the WHO-CC is involved in providing regular in service fellowship for health professionals from India and SEARO countries. Training tool on Essential Newborn Nursing for resource restricted countries has been developed for dissemination in SEA region. The centre has coordinated Kangaroo Mother Care Initiative network with five institutions in the country, for spreading KMC practice among health care professionals. .A website is launched for healthcare professionals and parents www.kmcindia.org

Regular training workshops on Neonatal Resuscitation,Kangaroo Mother Care ,Neonatal Ventilation and Continuing Medical Education for doctors and nurses are being conducted in Delhi and satellite cities by the WHO-CC Faculty. Our centre is the nodal centre for collection of neonatal perinatal database for the country and currently working very closely with ICMR for perusing multisite research on key Newborn Health issues. At present , our Division is collaborating with WHO HQs on a inter- country study on Predictors of Severe Illness in Sick Young Infants.

 Faculty 

 Clinical Work 

The neonatal unit caters to 2200 neonates delivered every year, most of whom are born to high risk pregnancies. A well equipped 10-bedded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 4 bedded intermediate care area and 30 rooming beds provide the inpatient services. Three faculty members, 1 senior resident, 7 DM residents, 4 junior residents make up the team. All deliveries are conducted and attended by resident doctors. The NICU has 16 nurses ensuring a nurse-patient ratio of 1.0 for critically sick babies and 0.3–0.5 for others. The Obstetric Perinatal Care services have facilities for antenatal diagnosis, fetal monitoring and fetal intervention. There are two follow up clinics for the newborn infants, one each for the high-risk neonates and normal neonates. The improvement in neonatal care is reflected in the improving survival of neonates in recent years. The overall neonatal mortality rate has dropped from 38 per 1000 live births in 1983 to 15 per 1000 live births in 2000. 

 Training Program

 Under Graduate Training

Around 15 lectures are taken in neonatology for MBBS graduate students during 8th semester, 10 lectures for B.Sc. (Hons) Nursing students and 2 lectures for B.Sc. (Hons) Speech and Hearing course. Workshops on Neonatal Resuscitation are held every year for the 6th semester students to provide them hands-on training & Kangaroo Mother Care along with Breast feeding. During their posting in the Department of Obstetrics, weekly clinical demonstrations are conducted on newborn babies. Competency based curriculum in neonatology for undergraduate medical students has been developed.  

 Postgraduate Training

Junior residents (MD students) are posted in the NICU for as period of 6-9 months during the 3-year residency programme. They attend daily teaching rounds and weekly “High risk Neonates Follow up  Clinic” under the supervision of Neonatal consultants. They regularly participate in journal clubs, clinical combined rounds, grand rounds, bed-side clinical demonstrations, radiology conference, cardiology conference, mortality audit every working day of the week. Around 22 junior residents are registered for the 3 year MD training programme. We have introduced Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for their internal assessment and for the final MD practical examination in Neonatology which is the first of its kind in the country.

 DM (Neonatology) Training 

We have recently started a DM course in Neonatology has been started from July 2000 and we have presently 7 DM students in the course. They regularly participate in the teaching activities of the Department besides having a separate teaching schedule for themselves. The DM students receive specialized training in Pediatric Surgery, Obstetrics, Cardiology, Community Neonatal care and Genetics besides being trained in Neonatology. Our first DM student appeared for his exams in May 2002.  

 Fellows Training 

Various fellows from other colleges in the country and abroad have received training in Neonatology in our unit over the last 15-20 years. We have imparted training in Neonatology to Pediatricians from the Armed Forces, Medical colleges as well as Private practitioners.                   

 Training in Rural Services    

The AIIMS has a rural outreach project located 35 km away for training and research. This Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project (CRHSP) caters to a rural population of 72,182 through 2 Primary Health Centres, 11 Extended Health Centres and a 60 bedded level II Hospital at Ballabhgarh. The CRHSP has a fully computerized disease surveillance system. Every year around 1800 deliveries occur in the community and 1200 deliveries take place in the hospital. This project provides a unique opportunity for community-based training and research in Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Neonatology, which our department has been consistently availing of.