NCKU collaborates with Quanta Computer to launch QOCA baby for neonatal care

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), southern Taiwan, has collaborated with Quanta Computer to launch a cloud solution expecting to provide neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) doctors and parents access to a live video stream that they can watch anywhere from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

“Doctors at NCKU Hospital not only care about patients but value the quality of life”

The cloud solution called "QOCA baby^TM" is extending from the BabyCam project carried out by research collaboration between Quanta Research Institute and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), revealed Quanta Computer, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers.

One extension of QOCA baby^TM is a mobile patient monitoring unit installed in an ICU that enables real time audio/video interactions between physicians, patients and patients' family members, according to Alex Huang, Senior Manager of Quanta Computer.

NCKU Hospital neonatologist Yuh-Jyh Lin is the first physician to use the device, "QOCA baby^TM via technology transmits not only the sound and image but the dedicate feelings and love toward new life."

Dr. Lin applied QOCA baby^TM to tend intensively to a 7-month premature baby who is diagnosed with intestinal perforation and needs emergency surgery. After the operation, thanks to QOCA baby^TM, Dr. Lin is able to observe the baby by monitoring it on the screen of his tablet even when he is home.

"Doctors at NCKU Hospital not only care about patients but value the quality of life," according to Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su, NCKU Executive Vice President who said that having the newborn needed intensive care, the family inevitably experience mixed feelings and NCKU Hospital is committed to provide patients heartfelt services and improve the health of society.

Huang said, "With telemedicine cloud solution, NICU doctors can keep track on the data and image of the newborns through mobile devises to get the real-time information which may improve the neonatal care and lower the possibilities of misjudgment."

Additionally, QOCA baby^TM may increase the interaction between the mother and her newborn. The mother is able to interact with the baby and the medical staff by mobile devices, which will facilitate the communication and ease the postpartum depression.

All neonatal physiological and biochemical monitoring data and images stored in the cloud database for computing and transmission, Huang added.