Proposal of a program to follow-up high-risk new born children in Cuba

Abstract

Introduction: The advances of the perinatal medicine and in the neonatal intensive care have lead to the development of programs to follow-up the high-risk new born children. There are experiences In Cuba in the follow-up of the neurodevelopment of these new born children in several institutions, but the working methods differ. Objective: proposing the implementation of a follow-up program of the high-risk new born children standardized for all the country. Development: We proposed a follow-up program of neurological risk children, beginning with the evaluation of the neurological risk of the child at the discharge form the hospital where he/she was born. This program is based in the creation, for this purpose, of territorial consultations in each province. We defined the criteria for entering the program, the methods and instruments to use, the periodicity of the controls, and the professionals of the specialties who could participate in it. We described the main problems of these children during the follow-up, and offered a guideline of how to affront them. Conclusion: The implementation of a follow-up program unified in all the country, besides fulfilling the ethic principle of justice, will allow the implementation of comparisons of the service quality among institutions of perinatal care. It also will allow carrying out multiinstitutional collaborative researches. All of these will contribute to the improvement of the life quality of the Cuban children with neurological risk at birth.