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Assessing Neonatal Jaundice with Smartphone App

October 31, 2017 7:00 am

A recent study (Taylor JA, et al. Pediatrics 2017; 140 (3) e20170312) reports on the effectiveness of a smartphone app, BiliCam, to detect total serum bilirubin (TSB) in a diverse sample of newborns < 7 days old. Thanks to Ben Gold for this reference.

BiliCam uses a calibration card which is placed on the infant’s sternum to standardize the color (and jaundice) reading in the photo; the image goes via the internet to a server for analysis.

Key findings:

Estimated bilirubin levels using BiliCam were compared with TSB levels in 530 newborns which included 20.8% African American,, 26.3% Hispanic and 21.2% Asian American
The overall correlation was 0.91 were similar among all ethnic groups with correlations ranging from 0.88 to 0.92
The sensitivity of Bilicam was 84.6% is for identifying infants with a TSB in the high-risk zone of the Bhutani nomogram. The sensitivity was 100% for identifying TSB > 17 mg/dL. Specificities were 75.1% adn 76.4% respectively.

For more commentary on this article: AAP Journals Blog: Bilirubin phone apps –our future calls!

My take: This article indicates that a digital image with Smartphone app analysis is much more accurate in detecting jaundice that a visual assessment.