Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Project

A comprehensive software system for managing all aspects of neonatal intensive care, from patient admission through discharge and follow-up.

Overview

This project aims to build a complete, integrated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) management system that covers:

• Patient Management — Registration, demographics, and mother-infant linkage
• Real-Time Monitoring — Continuous vital signs monitoring with alarm management
• Clinical Documentation — Comprehensive charting, assessments, and care planning
• Medication Management — Weight-based dosing, TPN formulation, and pharmacy integration
• Nutrition & Feeding — Enteral feeding tracking, breast milk management, and growth optimization
• Respiratory Care — Ventilator management, ABG trending, and weaning protocols
• Laboratory Integration — Order entry, result management, and critical value alerts
• Growth & Development — Growth charts, developmental milestones, and neurodevelopmental assessments
• Clinical Decision Support — Evidence-based alerts, sepsis screening, and treatment pathways
• Infection Control — CLABSI surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, and outbreak detection
• Family Engagement — Parent portal, education, and family-centered care tools
• Discharge Planning — Readiness tracking, discharge education, and follow-up coordination
• Reporting & Analytics — Quality metrics, VON reporting, and benchmarking
• Regulatory Compliance — HIPAA, Joint Commission, and CMS compliance
• Research Integration — Clinical trial management and quality improvement tools

Project Milestones

The project is organized into 25 comprehensive milestones spanning approximately 42 weeks. See MILESTONES.md for the complete milestone plan with detailed deliverables and acceptance criteria.

Phase	Milestones	Weeks
Foundation	M1: Infrastructure & Architecture	1–4
Core Clinical	M2–M8: Patient, Vitals, Charting, Meds, Nutrition, Respiratory, Labs	5–20
Advanced Clinical	M9–M15: Growth, Alerts, Infection, Thermal, Pain, Nursing, Orders	18–28
Engagement & Operations	M16–M19: Family Portal, Discharge, Staffing, Devices	25–34
Quality & Compliance	M20–M24: Analytics, Security, Transport, Palliative, Research	30–38
Go-Live	M25: Testing, Training & Deployment	35–42

Technology Stack

Layer	Technology	Version
Backend	Java (OpenJDK) + Spring Boot	21 LTS / 3.x
Frontend	Angular	17+
FHIR	HAPI FHIR	7.x
Database	PostgreSQL (prod), H2 Database (dev/test), TimescaleDB, MongoDB, Redis	Latest
DB Versioning	Flyway	Latest
Search	Elasticsearch	Latest
Messaging	Apache Kafka	3.x
Build	Gradle (backend), Angular CLI (frontend)	Latest
CI/CD	GitHub Actions	N/A
Containerization	Docker, Kubernetes	Latest
Code Coverage	JaCoCo (Java), Istanbul (Angular) — 100% required	Latest

Documentation

• MILESTONES.md — Complete milestone plan with deliverables and acceptance criteria
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — System architecture overview (Java + Angular)
• docs/COMPLIANCE.md — Regulatory compliance requirements
• .github/copilot-instructions.md — GitHub Copilot best practices and coding guidelines

Key Design Principles

1. Patient Safety First — Every feature prioritizes the safety of the most vulnerable patients
2. Evidence-Based — Clinical decision support grounded in published guidelines and best practices
3. Interoperable — HL7 FHIR-native design for seamless data exchange
4. Family-Centered — Parents are partners in care, not visitors
5. Clinician-Friendly — Workflows designed to minimize documentation burden
6. Secure & Compliant — HIPAA compliance and data security built into every layer
7. Scalable — Architecture supports single-unit to multi-facility deployments

License

This project is proprietary. All rights reserved.