An interdisciplinary fetal neonatal neurology collaborative promotes integrative life-course brain health

A proposed interdisciplinary fetal neonatal neurology collaborative offers life-course brain health training across three time-sensitive teaching opportunities. The educational organization includes a broad representation of inter-related fields. Formal training will re-enforce career-long learning that fosters creative thinking. Acquiring a life-course perspective of brain health can contribute solutions to the global public health crisis involving neurological and mental health disorders across the lifespan. Teaching transdisciplinary interventions begins with parental childhood and reproductive health which will influence the maternal-placental-fetal triad throughout pregnancy into labor and delivery. The second teaching opportunity focuses on the symptomatic minority who receive neonatal neurocritical care and convalescent care. The third educational cluster focuses on improving clinical skills as the unrecognized majority of children present over the preschool years with continued development through the school years. Teaching preventive neurology and mental health introduce proactive interventions that more effectively support rescue and reparative choices into adulthood. The science of uncertainty will be taught to all stakeholders that integrates information to improve critical thinking skills. This tripartite interdisciplinary educational program will help trainees distinguish adverse effects from neurodegeneration on primary fetal neuroplasticity mechanisms from secondary pathways based on systems-science. Supervised clinical experiences during each rotation will supplement didactic teaching with input from each trainee's mentoring committee. Future providers will learn to anticipate adaptive from maladaptive disease pathways to prepare for career-long experiences. Curriculum topics will focus on brain health strategies that differentiate resilience from vulnerability based on time-dependent gene-environment interactions. Attention to structural, social and environmental drivers of health will incorporate intersectionality perspectives into equitable neuroprotective plans. Training will engage, educate and empower women to improve brain health for themselves and their children. This interdisciplinary collaborative program will apply real-world situations to encourage research development that will narrow the knowledge-practice gap. Continuity of brain care bundles will enable providers, women, and their families to achieve brain health across each and successive generations. A lower global burden of neurologic and mental health disorders will contribute to an improved quality of life with greater economic prosperity.