The Regional Neonatal Center (RNICU) located at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center admits more than 700 sick newborns annually. We have the highest case mix acuity of any hospital in the entire State of New York. The RNICU cares for over 250 infants with birth weights below 1500 grams and over 110 patients below 1000 grams each year. We have the only high-risk neonatal transport program from Westchester to Albany. It is one of the busiest in the Greater New York Area, over 220 neonatal transport patients each year.
We routinely apply all of the cutting edge ventilator technologies, including high frequency oscillators, jet ventilators, flow synchronized ventilation and nitric oxide in a "kinder gentler approach to ventilation." Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygentation (ECMO) is now available. Approximately 20% of admissions are surgical cases that include acute illness and congenital malformations requiring cardiac surgery, abdominal surgery, neurosurgery, and orthopedic surgery. Clinical research projects offered to our patients and families provide opportunities to receive new therapies available only in an academic medical center. Our academic program offers positions for twelve Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellows. We are important contributors to perinatal research in multicenter trials, single institution trials as well as in basic research. Since its inception in 1982, founded by Harry S. Dweck, M.D., more than 17,000 newborns have been cared for in the Regional Neonatal Center. The Division of Neonatology is dedicated to the highest quality of patient care, teaching and research
New York Medical College
Division of Newborn Medicine
Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center
Valhalla, New York 10595
(914) 493-8558
The physicians in the Division of Newborn Medicine at New York Medical College, through their clinical and basic science research investigations, are seeking ways to improve care for extremely preterm babies and other conditions of the newborn. Clinical and Basic Science research projects at the Regional Neonatal Center, a NYS DOH level IV designated program, afford these tiny patients and their families an opportunity to receive new treatments and therapies not available at community hospitals or even at many other major medical centers (e.g., ECMO, Jet and Oscillatory Ventilation, Selective Brain Cooling for asphyxia, High Frequency Ventilation for transport, etc.).
The Division of Newborn Medicine is also involved with many public health initiatives focused on enhanced access to healthcare and in identifying opportunities to improve perinatal outcomes for the citizens of our entire 5,000 square mile catchment area through a formal collaboration with the Lower Hudson and Mid-Hudson Valley Perinatal Networks. There have been over 20,000 sick or premature newborns cared for since the Division was established in 1982.
Current Research Projects include: