Should We Try to Save 22 Weekers?
Miami Neonatology 2019—43rd Annual International Conference

Survival rates are improving for neonates born at ≤22 weeks through implementation of innovative active lifesaving treatment protocols. The most significant common denominator to improve the chance of survival is having an actual resuscitation plan in place. John D. Lantos, MD, discusses active treatment protocols, which require an institutional commitment with collaboration between maternal fetal medicine specialists, NICUs, and Tiny Baby Units within the NICU. Dr. Lantos also describes the need for continued clinical studies of supporting evidence for specific protocols that will continue to increase survival of the lowest gestational-age neonates.

• Profile

  John D. Lantos, MD

  ×

  John Lantos, MD, is nationally recognized for his work in neonatal and pediatric bioethics. He is director of the Children’s Mercy Bioethics Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Dr. Lantos received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, completed a residency at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC, and a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago.

  After 20 years on the faculty of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Lantos moved to Kansas City where he founded the pediatric bioethics center at Children’s Mercy Hospital. His research, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, includes physician/patient communication, research ethics—particularly with respect to clinical trials, organ transplantation, and end-of-life decision making. 

   

  Dr. Lantos is co-chair of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Clinical Trial Advisory Board, a member of the executive committee of the Section of Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Advisory Board of the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development Global Research Network Advisory Board, as well as a former president of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics.  

  Dr. Lantos has published more than 320 journal articles and book chapters and written or edited 8 books on bioethics. He serves on a number of editorial boards and is a reviewer for several prestigious medical journals including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Bioethics, as well as Oxford University Press and Johns Hopkins University Press. He is a sought-after speaker on pediatric bioethical issues for both professional and lay audiences.

  Close
  

  John D. Lantos, MD

  Professor of Pediatrics
  University of Missouri–Kansas City
  Director, Children’s Mercy Hospital Bioethics Center
  Kansas City, Missouri