Neonatal Med.  2023 Feb;30(1):1-9. 10.5385/nm.2023.30.1.1.

On the 10th Anniversary of the Korean Neonatal Network

• Ahn SY
• Song HY
• Chang YS
• Korean Neonatal Network

• KMID: 2540093
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5385/nm.2023.30.1.1

Abstract

The Korean Neonatal Network (KNN), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, currently has more than 100 staff and researchers from >70 neonatal intensive care units nationwide in Korea. More than 85% to 90% of the population of very low birth weight infants in Korea are registered yearly, and more than half are followed up for up to 3 years at the KNN. A total of >19,000 cases have been accumulated through a strict data quality management process of the KNN. Based on this, >100 research projects have been proposed, >70 peer-reviewed papers have been published in leading international journals, and the cornerstone of the quality improvement project has been launched. In addition, we recently expanded the number of subjects for registration to very premature infants <32 weeks of age and continue to provide essential evidence data for establishing national health policies, such as linking with government policy projects of the Ministry of Health and Welfare for preterm infants. In such manner, the KNN is confident to be successfully and actively moving toward reaching the ultimate goal of standardizing neonatal intensive care and management of preterm infants in Korea by providing essential data for national health policy establishment along with quality improvement through evidence-based interactive data.

Keyword

Infant, newborn; Data management; Data collection; Infant, premature

Figure

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  Figure 1. Korean Neonatal Network 10th anniversary symposium.

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  Figure 2. Operational structure of Korean Neonatal Network (KNN) (at current time of February, 2023).

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  Figure 3. Trend analysis of survival rates from 2013 to 2021. K-STAT: The number of very low birth weight infants (VLBWIs) with Korean Statistical Information Service; Korean Neonatal Network (KNN) type 1: The number of VLBWIs registered with the KNN; KNN type 2: The number of VLBWIs registered and unregistered with the KNN.

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  Figure 4. Trend analysis of survival rates from 2013 to 2021. K-STAT: The number of very low birth weight infants (VLBWIs) with Korean Statistical Information Service; Korean Neonatal Network (KNN) type 1: The number of VLBWIs registered with the KNN; KNN type 2: The number of VLBWIs registered and unregistered with the KNN.

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  Figure 5. Trend analysis of follow-up (FU) rate from 2013 to 2019. FU1: 18 to 24 months of corrected age; FU2: 3 years of age.

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  Figure 6. Momentous occasion of Korean Neonatal Network.

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  Figure 7. Current status of the Korean Neonatal Network (KNN) data utilization research.

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