Clinical Applications of Contactless Imaging of Neonates Using Visible, Infrared Light and Others
Background: the monitoring of sick newborns is a challenging task that health care providers in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) must contend with each day. Conventionally, newborns are monitored via probes that are affixed to their skin and attached to processing monitors (Figure 1). However, contactless imaging offers an important alternative for recording the physiological signals (Physio-Markers) and external and internal structures of neonates that can be used independently of or in conjunction with conventional monitors. Objectives: to review the and establish advantages of contactless monitoring methods including: i) quick data generation; ii) lack of contact with skin, which reduces skin breakdown and decreases the chances of skin contamination and infection; and iii) minimizing the number of probes and monitors connected to the newborn’s skin which allows more body surface-area for other care. Methods; review and build a foundation for and to provide a vision of the potential neonatal clinical applications of technologies that use non-contact modalities, such as Visible Light Imaging (VLI), Near InfraRed Spectrum (NIRS), Thermal Imaging (TI) using InfraRed Spectrum (IRS), leapmotion, kinect and others. Discussion: literature pertaining to the technical aspects and clinical application of contactless imaging in pediatric and especially the neonatal field is very scare but growing. This review helps to build a foundation for future research in this promising field. In addition, it will build a road to connect scientists and scholars form different specialties to connect and pave the road to make such promising tools available to improve care in these fields. Conclusion: addressing the technological and clinical challenges associated with contactless neonatal imaging will make it a highly-useful medical tool in near future. Indeed, at present, contactless imaging is close to becoming standard practice in NICUs. The acquired parameters from optical, NIR, SWIR, MWIR and LWIR, and other modalities will be invaluable if they are interpreted in a manner that facilitates more effective clinical decision making in the NICU. Combining two imaging approaches (for example, one passive, like LWIR, and one active, like SWIR) can cover a wider range of physiomarkers and physiofeatures in clinical diagnostics and telehealth systems
NICU, Physiomarkers, Physio-features, Neonatal Imaging, Thermal Imaging, Near Infrared Imaging, Visible Light Imaging
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