Your VON Newsletter
December 2025 |
More Centers Than Ever Are Benchmarking for Improvement |
VON started collecting data from 34 centers in 1988. Today the network spans 45 countries and for birth year 2024, a new record number of centers (1,120) finalized infant data in the VLBW and Expanded databases! The African Neonatal Network continues to grow, engaging centers in clinical trials and the VON Global Health Neonatal QI Database. Countless individuals from VON member teams use this data to identify trends, evaluate policies and practices, and track the effects of their quality improvement initiatives.
Congratulations and thanks to the many dedicated members of our community who contribute to - and benefit from - the largest and most trusted source of NICU data in the world! |
The VON Quality Congress Returns! |
Join us in Chicago, IL on November 5-8, 2026 for the VON Quality Congress!
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Teams participating in the All Care is Brain Care collaborative receive complimentary registration for four team members, unlimited parents, and two senior leaders. |
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Optimize Your Quality Improvement with the VON Collaborative |
The All Care is Brain Care collaborative includes a series of topic-based webinars led by content experts, toolkits of evidence-based practices, and guidance to conduct quality improvement at your center. You can use the topic-specific practice gap assessments and Nightingale report links on our website to see the improvement opportunities at your center. |
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VON quality improvement collaboratives are designed for the entire multidisciplinary team, including parents who are core faculty and contributing members of improvement teams. Expert faculty engage teams throughout the course of each VON collaborative and provide coaching to help teams achieve measurable improvement. |
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Variation in Outcomes Occurs at the Hospital System Level |
In a study published this year in JAMA Network Open, Vermont Oxford Network assessed outcomes at US member hospitals in 224 health systems that delivered care to very preterm infants. We found clinically meaningful differences in mortality and length of stay among health systems, suggesting that quality improvement at the system level could decrease mortality and potentially reduce the resources used in patient care.
If your NICU is part of a health system, you can use VON group services to identify areas for improvement and collectively participate in QI initiatives. |
Our Community Published 23 Articles Using VON Data in 2025 |
Articles authored by VON members include:
Rajar P, Čopi T, Sladič M, Vidmar Šimic M, Kornhauser Cerar L. Management and outcomes of periviable infants in Slovenia: a decade of experience. J Perinat Med. 2025 Nov 3. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41177758.
Thakore P, Ford B, Rancourt J, Codrington L, Herr J, Trenbeath J, Lietz A, Low S, Motta S, Tucker L, Johnson K, Golioto A. The impact of standardized respiratory care practices on delivery room intubation frequency and NICU ventilator days in VLBW infants: A quality improvement initiative. Am J Perinatol. 2025 Oct 27. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41145123.
Boel L, Davies M, Goel N, Morris IP, Banerjee S, Makri V, Poon C, James A, Chakraborty M. Trends of care patterns and outcomes of very low birth weight infants (≤1500 g) born after 27 weeks of gestation in South Wales, UK. J Perinatol. 2025 Sep 18. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40968140.
Mongelli F, Calandrino A, Vinci F, et al. Three Years of Human Milk Banking: Assessing the Impact on Lactation Rates at Discharge in VLBW Preterm Infants in an Italian Reference NICU. Nutrients. 2025;17(9):1440. PMID: 40362750.
Fischer H, Buckley D, Ford J, Juneau J, Kahn D, Moore C, Spalding JS, Singh T. A quality improvement project improving post-operative transitions of care in a level IV NICU. J Perinatol. Published online February 27, 2025. PMID: 40011555.
See all publications, including ten articles from the African Neonatal Network that explore the landscape of neonatal care in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, on the VON website. |
400 Members See Enhanced Intervals in Time Series Charts |
Time Series charts in Nightingale Reporting display measures based on discharge dates.
This feature allows you to see up-to-date outcomes of new policy implementations or QI interventions. Seeing these more minute changes to your data allows your team to evaluate processes, identify drift in practice, and make changes (or celebrate successes!) at a more immediate rate. |
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VON Grand Rounds: Evidence into Practice |
Our VON Grand Rounds webinar and discussion series gathered more than 6,000 members of our international worldwide improvement community in 2025.
We are excited to continue to reach more people dedicated to evidence-based improvement with new topics and exciting partnerships in 2026.
All VON Grand Rounds recordings are available with a free login on the VON website. |
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