Congratulations to SSEHRI Affiliate Faculty Emily Zimmerman for receiving a grant from the Roux Institute, the new Northeastern partnership with the University of Maine, that has recently received extensive new funding.
Using artificial intelligence to examine the interplay between pacifier use and sudden infant death syndrome
Collaborators: Emily Zimmerman (NU), Marie Hayes (UM), Sarah Ostadabbas (NU), Rebecca Schwartz-Mette (UM)
In 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that infants use a pacifier at night to reduce SIDS based on an epidemiological finding that pacifier use was associated with lower SIDS incidence—this recommendation still stands today. Our study aims to examine the relationship between infant NNS and respiratory and arousal levels in infants in an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind how NNS can protect against SIDS. We will do this by using videos recorded from commercially-available baby monitoring systems during evening sleep and a day-time nap in thirty full-term infants. These videos will then be examined using advanced computer vision techniques and machine learning algorithms in designing an AI-guided monitoring platform to answer our proposed aims.