TEDI-Prem: Telehealth for Early Developmental Intervention in babies born very preterm

Abstract

We have developed an intervention called TEDI-Prem (Telehealth for Early Developmental Intervention in babies born very preterm) that focuses on early motor, cognitive and language development, environmental enrichment and supporting parent-infant interaction with the aim of improving neurodevelopment outcomes and parental well-being in children born preterm. It involves direct physiotherapy/occupational therapy collaborating with parents to provided developmentally appropriate activities, with 4 sessions delivered in the neonatal nursery, and 9 via telehealth, until 12 months’ corrected age. In addition, parent/s can access psychosocial education content to promote parental well-being and support parental mental health developed by our multidisciplinary team. We will test the efficacy of TEDI-Prem compared with usual care, in a multi-centre pragmatic superiority randomised controlled trial in 466 very preterm (VPT) infants.