What is BabyLink ?

This project builds on our experience with web based clinical systems.

The aim is to give parents access through the Internet to clinical information about their baby and to link this intelligently to unit guidelines and to a clinical knowledge database.

The idea is to ensure that parents get information that is relevant to the specific problems of their baby.

The system would also be used to improve discharge planning with parental and community involvement.

The project will incorporate the diaries and so maintain the ‘informality’ of this means of communication.

The families will have access not only over the internet but also at the cotside and at a dedicated terminal within the unit (in a quiet place outside the nursery). They will be able to post messages and questions which they feel have not been dealt with by the staff while they were visiting their baby. Sometimes parents may feel it is easier to ask a question on line rather than face to face.

Parents will be able to control who has access to their baby’s information by user defined passwords that they can change at anytime.

The web site will be hosted on an internet server which is not connected to the hospital system. Information will be updated by secure connections between the unit database and this server. Parents accessing the server will be unable to connect directly to the hospital system.