Othello doctor’s new app helps care for babies
Courtesy photo Dr. Mengyi Zha was part of a team that developed a new app designed to help medical professionals improve their treatment of jaundice in newborns.
OTHELLO — An Othello doctor is helping medical professionals treat jaundice, a disease that can cause serious health problems in newborns, through technology.
Dr. Mengyi Zha, a Columbia Basin Health Association physician, and her business partner, Dr. Dennis Costakos, have developed the phone app “Bilistop” to help treat jaundice in neonates. Jaundice can be an issue for newborn babies, and if left untreated can cause serious complications. In the case of newborns, those can include permanent neurological damage, Zha said.
It can be difficult to spot jaundice, so every baby is checked for bilirubins, which are indicators of liver function, Zha said. There are effective treatments for infant jaundice, like exposure to light, but sometimes it’s difficult to know when to stop the light treatments, Zha said. Too much treatment also can result in side effects, some serious, and it’s hard on babies and families from both an emotional and financial standpoint.
A large study done in 2017 developed a formula that doctors could use to tell when to stop treatment. “This formula, we feel it should be a standard of care. Unfortunately it’s not,” Zha said.
The author of the 2017 study suggested that an app would be a good idea to simplify the formula.
“She called for the app, so we’re going to make one,” Zha said.
Research started in 2019 with a team of Zha, Costakos and nurse Lynn Dahlen, in addition to about 30 medical providers during development. “It’s a couple of years of work altogether,” Zha said.
The result was BiliStop, which became available in June. The BiliStop app has proven to be user-friendly, faster than calculating by hand and more accurate, Zha said. It’s available in major app stores and on the company’s website, Evergreen Bioinformatics.