Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 5, 2025
Isolation of Neonatal Extrahepatic Cholangiocytes
Published on: June 5, 2014
Drive-through transcutaneous bilirubin screening for neonatal jaundice: A safe and efficient system during the
Bee-Sim Chua1, Li-Herng Song1, Chee-Tao Chang2
1Paediatrics Department, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Ministry of Health, Ipoh, Malaysia.
Insights
Drive-through screening for neonatal jaundice reduced clinic crowding during COVID-19. This non-invasive method efficiently screened 1842 babies, preventing missed severe cases and saving costs.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Public health
- Infectious disease control
Background:
- COVID-19 increased transmission risks in healthcare settings.
- Traditional neonatal jaundice screening involves physical clinic visits, risking exposure.
- Crowding in clinics poses a challenge for newborn health evaluations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To implement and evaluate a drive-through (DT) transcutaneous bilirubin screening service.
- To reduce COVID-19 transmission risks associated with traditional jaundice screening.
- To assess the efficiency and effectiveness of DT screening for neonatal jaundice.
Main Methods:
- Established a non-invasive, car-confined transcutaneous bilirubin drive-through (DT) service.
- Screened 1842 newborns for jaundice between April and July 2020.
- Compared DT screening duration and outcomes with traditional serum bilirubin (SB) testing.
Main Results:
- DT screening averaged less than 5 minutes per neonate, significantly faster than conventional SB testing (1.5 hours).
- Successfully identified infants requiring further SB measurement (16.1%) and phototherapy (85 infants).
- No severe jaundice cases were missed, demonstrating high sensitivity and safety.
Conclusions:
- The transcutaneous bilirubin DT service effectively reduced healthcare setting crowding.
- DT screening offers a rapid, non-invasive, and cost-effective alternative to traditional methods.
- This model can be adopted to minimize infection risks and improve newborn screening efficiency.
Abstract:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases was on an increasing trend, including in Malaysia. The Malaysian Ministry of Health had implemented a range of measures, such as the use of masks and social distancing, to reduce the risk of transmission. Traditionally, newborns are evaluated for neonatal jaundice using visual assessment, a capillary heel prick and serum bilirubin (SB) sampling in primary health-care clinics. This approach requires the physical presence of both parents and their newborns in the primary health-care clinics, causing crowding and increasing the risk of COVID-19 infections. To alleviate crowding, we implemented the transcutaneous bilirubin drive-through (DT) service, which is an established, non-invasive, painless and rapid method to determine the bilirubin levels. Throughout the screening, both parents and baby will be confined to their car. A total of 1842 babies were screened in our DT setting from April to July 2020. Of the total babies, 298 (16.1%) required venesection for SB measurement and 85 required admission for phototherapy. None with severe jaundice were missed since the implementation of this service. The average test duration per neonate was less than 5 min, while conventional venous bilirubin laboratory testing required an average of 1.5 h per neonate. The cost of the SB laboratory test and consumables was approximately USD 5 per test, with an estimated cost savings of USD 7720. DT screening may be introduced in health-care settings to reduce crowding and eliminate the need of painful blood sampling in newborns.
More Related Videos
06:46A High-Throughput Multiplexed Screening for Type 1 Diabetes, Celiac Diseases, and COVID-19
Published on: July 5, 2022
05:56Implementation of Non-invasive Point of Care Transient Elastography for Evaluation of Liver Disease in Pediatric Populations with Cystic Fibrosis
Published on: August 29, 2025