Vivek

Vivek Kumar

I'm a neonatologist by training, but curiosity is really my full-time job. I spend my days in the NICU and my evenings reading about artificial intelligence, complex systems, decision-making, and ideas that have nothing to do with medicine — and somehow it all connects. This site is my thinking out loud in public.

Sometimes that thinking becomes writing. Sometimes it becomes tools when I can't find ones that work the way clinicians actually need them to. Everything here sits somewhere at the intersection of neonatology, technology, and curiosity.

Featured Tool
NeoFORT

NeoFORT (Neonatal Fluid Optimization & Review Tool) is a clinician-designed digital platform developed to support evidence-based neonatal nutrition and bedside decision-making in NICU settings.

Version 1.1 currently includes:

30 sec TPN GIR Calculator Nutrition Audit

NeoFORT is designed to reduce calculation errors, save bedside time, and promote structured documentation in neonatal units.

Open NeoFORT →
A Note from the Developer

"In neonatal care, small numbers carry great weight. A minor miscalculation can affect a life measured in grams. NeoFORT was first conceptualised during my DM training at AIIMS, New Delhi, where I developed Excel-based calculators that continue to be used in clinical practice at AIIMS and other centres.

Over time, it became clear that thoughtfully designed digital tools could further enhance safety, efficiency, and standardisation in the NICU. NeoFORT represents the evolution of that early work into a clinician-friendly application, developed with the assistance of modern digital technologies.

It is my hope that this platform supports colleagues in delivering precise, efficient, and compassionate care to the smallest patients we serve."

— Dr. Vivek Kumar
Scholarship

Research & Publications

Clinician-researcher working at the intersection of neonatal sepsis, digital health infrastructure, and AI-assisted decision-making. Published across national and international indexed journals with a focus on evidence that can change practice in Indian NICUs.

Google Scholar iD ORCID  0000-0002-7252-0617
28
Publications
180
Citations
7
h-index
5
i10-index

Last updated: March 2026 · Source: Google Scholar

Ongoing Projects

Active
Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India · 2021–2026
Sepsis-related Mortality in Neonates in India — A Multi-disciplinary Program
₹ 45.5 Crore
Role
Lead Coordinator & Co-PI
Type
Multi-site, multi-institutional
Centre
AIIMS, New Delhi

A multi-disciplinary national program studying the biology, epidemiology, and outcomes of neonatal sepsis across tertiary centres in India. The project encompasses biomarker profiling, antimicrobial resistance patterns, clinical phenotyping, and the construction of an AI-ready digital sepsis registry to power future machine-learning applications.

Past Projects

Completed
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · 2019–2024
Burden of Multidrug-Resistant Neonatal Sepsis in District Hospitals in India
$ 1.25 Million
Role
Co-Investigator
Type
Multi-site national study · Level-II NICUs
Status
Completed · Published

A landmark multi-site study examining the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance burden of neonatal sepsis across district-level hospitals in India — a setting largely understudied in existing literature. Results published in Lancet Global Health (2025).

AIIMS New Delhi · During DM Training
30-Sec TPN & Nutrition Audit Made Easy — Excel-based NICU Tools

Innovated and built Excel-based tools for rapid TPN calculation and nutrition compliance auditing during DM residency at AIIMS. Tools adopted in 12+ NICUs across India including AIIMS Delhi, and formed the conceptual foundation for NeoFORT.

Selected Publications

Top 5

Chosen by the author · See all on Google Scholar →

2025 Lancet Global Health Original Article
Multidrug-resistant sepsis in special newborn care units in five district hospitals in India: a prospective cohort study
Jain K, Kumar V, Plakkal N, Chawla D, Jindal A, Bora R, Gupta N, Sastry A, Singla N, Bhargava A, Nath R, Nag VL, Mohapatra S, Wadhwa N, Agarwal R, Sankar MJ; DH study collaborators.
PubMed → 10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00564-3
2024 Original Article Indian Journal of Pediatrics
Need for repeat-hospitalization in very low birth weight or very preterm infants: a prospective cohort study
Kumar V, Anand P, Verma A, Thukral A, Sankar MJ, Agarwal R.
PubMed → 10.1007/s12098-023-04999-7
2024 Original Article Indian Pediatrics
Use of paracetamol for treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in preterm neonates: a 5-year experience from a tertiary hospital in India
Kainth D, Prakash S, Kumar V, Dhinakaran R, Verma A, Agarwal R.
PubMed → 10.1007/s13312-024-3231-z
2025 Original Article Journal of Perinatology
Post-procedure pain in preterm neonates undergoing retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening: a prospective cohort study
Singla R, Verma A, Kumar V, Chandra P, Thukral A, Sankar MJ, Agarwal R.
PubMed → 10.1038/s41372-024-02107-x
2023 Lancet Oncology Original Article
Sex disparity in childhood cancer in India: a multi-centre, individual patient data analysis
Bhatia KP, Ganguly S, Sasi A, Kumar V, Deo S, Agarwala S, Radhakrishnan V, Swaminathan R, Kapoor G, Manoharan N, Malhotra S, Pushpam D, Bakhshi S.
PubMed → 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00688-X
peer-reviewed publications
Complete list on Google Scholar and PubMed
View all on Google Scholar →

Book chapters

5 chapters
2025
Sepsis signs
In: Dutta S (ed). Neonatal Sepsis: A Comprehensive Guide to Prevention, Diagnosis and Management, 1st edn. 2025. Chapter 3A. ISBN: 978-81-980057-6-2.
2025
Approach to anaemia
In: Parthasarathy A, Menon PSN, Nair MKC (eds). IAP Textbook of Pediatrics, 8th edn. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, 2025. Chapter 14.2.
2023
AIIMS protocols in neonatology
In: Agarwal R, Deorari AK, Paul VK, Sankar MJ, Sachdeva A (eds). AIIMS Protocols in Neonatology, 3rd edn. CBS Publishers, New Delhi, 2023.
2021
Enteral Nutrition
In: Pejaver RK, Thakre R (eds). Textbook of Clinical Neonatology, 1st edn. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, 2021. Chapter 5.29, pp. 179–184.
2020
Humidification
In: Deorari AK, Kumar P, Murki S (eds). Workbook on CPAP Science, Evidence & Practice, 5th edn. Noble Vision Medical Books Publishers, 2020. Chapter 7, pp. 109–112.

Awards & Recognition

🏆
K.P. Sinha–P.S. Krishnan Award for Best Paper
2024
Association of Clinical Biochemists of India · Co-author
🥇
NNF PG Quiz — National Champion
2017
National Neonatology Forum, India · National first prize
📜
Special Appreciation Certificate — Govt. of India
2019
Meritorious service during Acute Encephalitis Syndrome outbreak · Muzaffarpur, Bihar
🌐
Life Member — NNF & IAP
2019
National Neonatology Forum & Indian Academy of Pediatrics

Open to collaboration on neonatal sepsis, digital health infrastructure, or AI in the NICU. If your work intersects with any of these, get in touch.

Education

Teaching & Learning

Learning Philosophy
"We teach best what we need to learn."
— Richard Bach · adopted as a personal teaching principle

"Teaching is the final test of understanding."

— on the discipline of teaching

Newborn Teaching

Neonatology
🍼
Basics of Neonatology
For MBBS undergraduates & Nurses
0 items
    🔬
    Advanced Neonatology
    For MD and DM residents
    0 items
      📚
      Learning Resources
      Curated sites, papers & articles in neonatology
      0 items

        Non-Newborn Learning

        Beyond the NICU
        📊
        Research Methodology & Medical Statistics
        Study design, biostatistics, data analysis & scientific writing
        0 items
          💰
          Personal Finance
          Financial literacy for doctors — investments, taxes & wealth
          0 items
            🌐
            General Stuff
            Interesting reads — technology, thinking, life & ideas
            0 items
              🔗
              Learning Resources
              Curated sites, courses & tools beyond neonatology
              0 items
                Writing

                Ideas & Perspectives

                Thoughts on neonatal medicine, AI in healthcare, building clinical tools, and the future of neonatal care in India. Written for curious clinicians — not academic journals. Opinions are my own and not that of any institution.

                AI & Digital Health
                Why Every NICU Needs a Digital Database — and How to Build One
                The argument for structured neonatal registries: what data to collect from day one, how to make it AI-ready, and how a well-designed database can power a decade of research without ever applying for another grant.
                Coming Soon
                Sepsis Research
                AI in Neonatal Sepsis: Where We Are and Where We're Headed
                An honest assessment of current ML models for sepsis prediction — the promising work, the replication failures, and what it will actually take to bring a sepsis alert to the Indian NICU bedside.
                Coming Soon
                Clinical Innovation
                How I Built NeoFORT: A Clinician's Guide to Building Medical Apps
                The story of building a neonatal clinical tool from inside the NICU — starting with an Excel sheet at AIIMS, working through what a "version 1.0" actually needs, and what other doctor-builders should know before writing a line of code.
                Coming Soon
                Medical Education
                Teaching Residents to Read AI Research Without Getting Fooled
                A practical guide for clinicians on critically appraising AI/ML papers — the things medical school never taught you about AUROC, validation cohorts, and why "98% accuracy" is almost never what it seems.
                Coming Soon
                Neonatology
                The Biomarker Problem in Neonatal Sepsis: Why We Still Don't Have a Good Test
                CRP, PCT, IL-6, NLR — four years into a DBT-funded sepsis study, here is an honest accounting of what bedside biomarkers can and cannot tell us, and why the problem is harder than it looks.
                Coming Soon
                Reflections
                What AIIMS Teaches You That No Curriculum Can
                MBBS, MD, and DM at AIIMS Delhi: the clinical density, the research culture, and the strange feeling of emerging from the same institution three times — each time slightly less certain about things you thought you knew.
                Coming Soon
                NeoTools

                Clinical Tools

                Digital tools designed by a clinician, for clinicians. Built to reduce errors, save bedside time, and close the gap between what we know and what we do in the NICU.

                Available Now
                Neonatal Nutrition

                NeoFORT

                Neonatal Fluid Optimization & Review Tool. A clinician-designed platform for evidence-based neonatal nutrition and bedside TPN calculation — born from Excel sheets at AIIMS, refined through years of NICU practice at LHMC. Reduces calculation errors and supports structured documentation.

                30-sec TPN GIR Calculator Nutrition Audit
                Open NeoFORT →
                A Note from the Developer

                "In neonatal care, small numbers carry great weight. A minor miscalculation can affect a life measured in grams. NeoFORT was first conceptualised during my DM training at AIIMS, New Delhi, where I developed Excel-based calculators that continue to be used in clinical practice at AIIMS and other centres across India."

                "Over time, it became clear that thoughtfully designed digital tools could further enhance safety, efficiency, and standardisation. NeoFORT represents the evolution of that early work — developed with modern digital technologies, shaped entirely by bedside need."

                — Dr. Vivek Kumar
                In Development
                Statistics · Research

                Sample Size Calculator

                A clinician-friendly sample size calculator for common neonatal study designs — covering superiority, non-inferiority, and diagnostic accuracy trials. Built to reduce the most common methodological error in neonatal research proposals.

                RCT Design Diagnostic Studies Cohort & Case-Control
                In Development
                Evidence · Trials

                NeoTrials

                A curated, structured summary of landmark and ongoing neonatal clinical trials — organised by topic, intervention, and level of evidence. Designed to help trainees and clinicians stay current with the neonatology trial landscape without wading through raw databases.

                Trial Summaries Evidence Grading Searchable by Topic
                In Development
                Profile

                About Dr. Vivek Kumar

                Dr. Vivek Kumar
                Dr. Vivek Kumar
                DM (Neonatology) · AIIMS, New Delhi
                Assistant Professor
                Department of Neonatology
                LHMC & Associated Hospitals
                New Delhi

                I am a neonatologist at LHMC, New Delhi, where I combine clinical care with research and digital health. My MBBS, MD (Pediatrics), and DM (Neonatology) are all from AIIMS New Delhi — an institution that shaped how I think about medicine as much as it trained me in it.

                For four years, I led a Dept. of Biotechnology-funded project on neonatal sepsis at LHMC — one of the largest studies of its kind at a tertiary care centre in North India. The project was never just about counting organisms. It was about building the kind of structured, high-quality database that can eventually train a machine to see what a clinician sees at 3am.

                My three obsessions are sepsis, digital databases, and artificial intelligence. These aren't separate interests — they are, in my view, one long project. The sepsis problem in Indian NICUs will not be solved by a better antibiotic. It will be solved by better recognition, earlier decisions, and smarter tools. That is the work.

                Outside the NICU, I build clinical software, think in public about medicine and technology, and teach residents to question everything — including me.

                🔬 Neonatal Sepsis 🤖 AI & Machine Learning 🗄️ Digital Databases ⚗️ Biomarkers 📊 Clinical Research 🛠️ Medical Software 🎓 Medical Education
                Education
                • DM Neonatology
                  All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
                  2018 – 2021 · AIIMS Delhi
                • MD Pediatrics
                  All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
                  2015 – 2018 · AIIMS Delhi
                • MBBS
                  All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
                  2009 – 2014 · AIIMS Delhi
                Positions Held
                • Assistant Professor, Neonatology
                  LHMC & Associated Hospitals, New Delhi
                  Sept 2025 – Present
                • Lead Co-ordinator & Co-Investigator — DBT Sepsis Project
                  AIIMS, New Delhi  ·  Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India
                  2022 – 2025
                • Senior Resident, Neonatology
                  AIIMS, New Delhi
                  During DM Training
                Key Statistics
                4+
                Years of DBT-funded neonatal sepsis research
                3×
                AIIMS degree holder — MBBS, MD, DM
                1,000+
                Sepsis cases in the research registry
                v1.1
                NeoFORT live in NICUs across India
                Get in Touch

                For research collaborations, tool feedback, speaking invitations, or clinical AI discussions — I'm always interested in connecting with people working at the intersection of medicine and technology.

                vivekneoaiims@gmail.com →