Division of Neonatology
WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and
Research in Newborn Care
The Department established a Neonatal Unit way back in 1962. Over the years it has
grown into a full-fledged clinical and academic division of national and regional
reputation. The Neonatal Division at the Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of
Medical Sciences, New Delhi, was designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Training
and Research in 1997. During the seven years since its inception, the Centre has made
significant contribution towards promotion of newborn care at the national and the regional
level. The Centre has worked closely with many agencies and institutions including the World
Health Organization, Saving Newborn Lives , the Government of India, the State
governments and the UNICEF. The Centre has collaborated with several countries in the
Region. Our activities included training, advocacy, research, technical support and
networking. For further details visit www.newbornwhocc.org
Currently the WHO-CC is involved in providing regular in service fellowship for health
professionals from India and SEARO countries. Training tool on Essential Newborn Nursing
for resource restricted countries has been developed for dissemination in SEA region. The
centre has coordinated Kangaroo Mother Care Initiative network with five institutions in the
country for spreading KMC practice among health care professionals. A website is launched
for healthcare professionals and parents www.kmcindia.org
Regular training workshops on Neonatal Resuscitation, Kangaroo Mother Care, Essential
Newborn Care ,Neonatal Ventilation and Continuing Medical Education for doctors and
nurses are being conducted in Delhi and satellite cities by the WHO-CC Faculty. Our centre
is the nodal centre for the National Neonatal Perinatal Database for the country and currently
working very closely with ICMR for perusing multisite research on program relevant newborn
health research. At present , our Division is collaborating with WHO - HQs on a inter- country
study on predictors of severe illness in sick young infants.
Faculty
Incharge
Dr. Vinod K. Paul
Professor
Division of Neonatology , Department of Pediatrics
AIIMS, New Delhi.
Tel. 26594372, Fax : 26588663, 26588041
Email : vinodkpaul@hotmail.com
Co-ordinator
Dr. Ashok K. Deorari
Professor
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics
AIIMS, New Delhi.
Tel. 26593619, Fax : 26588663, 26588041
Email : ashokdeorari_56@hotmail.com
Faculty
Dr. Ramesh Agarwal
Assistant Professor
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics
AIIMS, New Delhi.
Tel. 26593621, Fax : 26588663, 26588041
Email : aranag@rediffmail.com
Clinical, Research & Education
The neonatal unit caters to 2200 neonates delivered every year, most of whom are born to
high risk pregnancies. A well equipped 10-bedded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 4 bedded
intermediate care area and 30 rooming beds provide the inpatient services. Three faculty
members, 1 senior resident, 7 DM residents, 4 junior residents make up the team. All
deliveries are conducted and attended by resident doctors. The NICU has 16 nurses ensuring
a nurse-patient ratio of 1.0 for critically sick babies and 0.3–0.5 for others. The Obstetric
Perinatal Care services have facilities for antenatal diagnosis, fetal monitoring and fetal
intervention. There are two follow up clinics for the newborn infants, one each for the highrisk neonates and normal neonates. The improvement in neonatal care is reflected in the
improving survival of neonates in recent years. The overall neonatal mortality rate has
declined from 38 per 1000 live births in 1983 to 15 per 1000 live births in 2000.
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics was designated as the WHO
Collaborating Centre for Training and Research in 1997. The Centre has made significant
contribution towards promotion of newborn health at the national and international level. We
have worked closely with the Government of India, several state governments, Indian Council
of Medical Research, National Neonatology Forum, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Nursing
and Medical Schools and NGO’s. We are privileged to have been associated with a wide
range of neonatal health initiatives of the World Health Organization through the India
Country Office, the South East Asia Regional Office as well as the HQ’s at Geneva. We have
collaborated actively with UNICEF, Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, the Rotary
International and several leading Universities in North America. It is an honour for us to be
able to contribute to newborn health work with partners in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
East Timor, Maldives, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bhutan.
The spectrum of our work spans from training and education, tools development
research, advocacy , policy and dissemination their off. The areas of special focus includes
Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood illness, neonatal resuscitation program,
newborn nursing, Kangaroo Mother Care, neonatal–perinatal database and networking,
home and community– based newborn care, technologies for maternal newborn health and
newborn health programming within the maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH)
continuum.
Clinical Work
Days
Monday
Morning (9 AM)
Afternoon Clinic (2 PM)
Pediatric Developmental Clinic
Dr. Ramesh Agarwal
Tuesday
Dr. Ashok Deorari
Wednesday
High Risk Clinic
Dr. Vinod Paul
Dr. Ashok Deorari
Dr. Ramesh Agarwal
Thursday
Dr.Vinod Paul
Well Baby Clinic
Dr. Ashok Deorari
Dr. Ramesh Agarwal
Training Program
Under Graduate Training
Around 15 lectures are taken in neonatology for MBBS graduate students during 8th
semester, 10 lectures for B.Sc. (Hons) Nursing students and 2 lectures for B.Sc.
(Hons) Speech and Hearing course. Workshops on Neonatal Resuscitation and
Breastfeeding & Lactation management are held each year for the 6th semester
students to provide hands-on, skills-based training. During their posting in the
Department of Obstetrics, weekly clinical demonstrations are conducted on the bedside. Competency-based curriculum in neonatology for undergraduate medical
students has been developed.
Postgraduate Training
Junior residents (MD students) are posted in the NICU for as period of 6-9 months
during the 3-year residency programme. They attend daily teaching rounds and weekly
“High risk Neonates Follow up Clinic”. They regularly participate in journal clubs,
clinical combined rounds, grand rounds, bed-side clinical demonstrations, radiology
conference, cardiology conference, mortality audit every working day of the week.
Around 22 junior residents are registered for the 3 year MD training programme. We
have introduced Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for their internal
assessment as well as the final MD practical examination in Neonatology.
DM (Neonatology) Training
Division of Neonatology started a DM course in Neonatology since July 2000 have
already qualified in DM (Neonatology).Seven students have already qualified DM and
presently there are 7 DM students in the course. They regularly participate in the
teaching activities of the Department besides having a separate teaching schedule for
themselves. The DM students receive specialized training in Pediatric Surgery,
Obstetrics, Cardiology, Community Neonatal care and Genetics besides being trained
in Neonatology. So far 7 DM students have completed their courses and six are
currently enrolled. The DM course is offered to both regular and sponsored
candidates.
Fellows Training
Various fellows from other colleges in the country and abroad have received training in
Neonatology in our unit over the last 20 years. We have imparted training in
neonatology to pediatricians and nurses from the public sector organizations, Armed
Forces, medical colleges.
Training in Rural Services
The AIIMS has a rural outreach project located 35 km away for training and research.
This Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project (CRHSP) caters to a rural
population of 72,182 through 2 Primary Health Centres, 11 Extended Health Centres
and a 60 bedded level II Hospital at Ballabhgarh. The CRHSP has a fully
computerized disease surveillance system. Every year around 1800 deliveries occur in
the community and 1200 deliveries take place in the hospital. This project provides a
unique opportunity for community-based training and research in Obstetrics, Pediatrics
and Neonatology, which our department has been consistently availing of.
For further details visit www.newbornwhocc.org