Dr. Melendi and her team work on projects that directly address reducing outcome disparities for newborns in rural areas. Specifically, Dr. Melendi’s efforts have concentrated on advancing neonatal telehealth by building off the established regional telehealth network to enhance the recognition of neonatal encephalopathy, which now connects rural hospitals with MaineHealth’s neonatologists and expanded to cover all neonatal diagnoses. Dr. Melendi’s focus has expanded to research and program development supporting rural community hospitals in optimizing newborn resuscitation care. She and her team utilize educational strategies, such as simulation and telesimulation, to improve the interprofessional delivery room team’s adherence to neonatal resuscitation guidelines, enhance teamwork and communication, and reduce latent safety threats within the system. Their projects aim to optimize this program’s sustainability and integrate new technology, such as a mixed reality holo-baby, which they are comparing to high-fidelity simulation with the NICU delivery room team at MMC.

The team is also improving delivery room documentation across the health system to better assess outcomes for newborns in the delivery room. They have joined a national collaborative through the American Academy of Pediatrics called DRIVE (Delivery Room Intervention and Evaluation Network), a pioneering network to study and enhance neonatal resuscitation across a diverse population of infants born in U.S. delivery rooms. Additionally, they plan to pilot a live delivery room recording program at MMC for quality improvement.