All Care is Brain Care
Bundling Care to Reduce Severe IVH
About this VON QI Collaborative Topic
Neuroprotection bundles, which generally target care practices within the first 72 hours of life, have been effective in decreasing the rates of IVH.
In this topic group of the All Care is Brain Care collaborative, teams will learn from expert faculty and each other to explore and implement evidence-based potentially better practices through structured quality improvement processes to improve rates of:
- antenatal steroids
- delayed cord clamping
- early skin to skin care
- gentle ventilation
- and other clinical practices in the first 72 hours of life.
Is this topic right for your center?
Use these support materials to decide on your improvement topic and make the case for participating in the collaborative.
All Care is Brain Care QI Collaborative
“Bundling Care to Reduce Severe IVH” is a topic area of focus for teams participating in the 2025 All Care is Brain Care collaborative. Participating teams choose a topic most relevant for their center, and then choose a membership level: NICQ or iNICQ.
All teams in either NICQ or iNICQ will benefit from:
- Webinars led by experts in the topic (5-6 per year)
- Interactive toolkits of potentially better practices and evidence-based change ideas
- Recorded webinars and toolkits from other topic areas in All Care is Brain Care
- Quality Improvement Foundations online course for all staff
- CME/CNE for all webinars and courses (including all videos from other topic areas in the collaborative)
- MOC Part 4 credits for physicians (with submission of a poster)
Newborn Improvement Collaborative for Quality
Includes: Small group collaboration and continuous feedback/coaching from colleagues and faculty, dedicated faculty team, additional “homeroom” meetings, in-person meetings (February 2025, Spring 2026, and two days at the Quality Congress in Fall 2026).
To join NICQ or request more information, contact John Lester for more information.
iNICQ: Internet-Based Newborn Improvement Collaborative for Quality
Includes: Virtual collaboration with topical community throughout the year and a 1-day in-person meeting at the 2026 Quality Congress.
Join as a Quality Circle member and participate in iNICQ, or contact Pam Ford, Program Coordinator, for more information.
Faculty
Amy Atwater
Quality Leader: Amy Atwater is a Senior Patient Safety Specialist at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, MI where she oversees projects that promote patient safety and outcomes. She has over 20 years of experience in Quality Improvement and has participated in VON first as a NICU nurse in 2002 and more recently as a faculty member.
Khorshid Mohammad, MD, MSc, FABP, FRCP (Edin)
Content Lead: Dr. Khorshid Mohammad is a Staff Neonatologist at Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone, Professor of Pediatrics at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and Medical Site lead of Neonatology at Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dr. Mohammad’s quality improvement work led to significant reduction in mortality and brain injury in extremely premature infants and term infants suffered from asphyxia and seizure, for that he was awarded as Emerging Leader in Neonatology by the Canadian Pediatric Society in 2020. Dr. Mohammad’s areas of research interest are education, brain perfusion, monitoring, and Quality Improvement neuroprotection strategies.
Alan Picarillo, MD
Clinical Translator: Dr. Alan Picarillo works as medical director and neonatologist at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital level 4 NICU. Additionally, Dr. Picarillo is involved in the creation, implementation, and data analysis of quality improvement efforts in newborn medicine.
Alex Zavala
Family Leader: Alex Zavala is a small business owner in Austin, TX, who has a passion for supporting NICU Dads. As a NICU dad to two preemie daughters, he understands firsthand the challenges that come with navigating the NICU. In 2018, he founded The NICU Dad, an online platform aimed at providing support and resources to other NICU dads going through the same experience. Alex is a member of the Dell Children’s Medical Center NICU Quality Improvement team and the Dell Children’s Medical Center PFAC. He brings his unique perspective as a NICU dad to these roles, advocating for improvements in care and support for families.
VON Award for Excellence in Quality Improvement
The annual VON Award for Excellence in Quality Improvement recognizes VON member teams who demonstrate dedication to our shared core values of quality improvement: measurement, evidence, families, equity, and collaboration.
Teams participating in the All Care is Brain Care collaborative (NICQ/iNICQ) are eligible to apply.
About VON Membership
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