Othello physician develops app to help treat infant jaundice
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 8 months AGO
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.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | July 18, 2020 8:00 AM
OTHELLO — A Columbia Basin Health Association physician has developed a phone app designed to help medical professionals treat a disease that can cause serious health problems for newborns.
The “BiliStop” app developed by Dr. Mengyi Zha and her business partner, Dr. Dennis Costakos, helps treat jaundice in neonates.
Zha is a family medicine physician at CBHA, whose practice includes obstetrics. 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.
In some cases “it’s really hard to spot it (jaundice),” Zha said. To combat that, every baby is checked for bilirubins, which are indicators of liver function.
There are effective treatments for infant jaundice, including exposure to light. But sometimes it’s difficult to tell when to stop the light treatments, Zha said. Too much treatment also can result in side effects, some of them serious, and it’s hard on babies and families, both emotionally and financially.
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.
It’s a pretty complicated formula and takes a while to calculate. The author of the 2017 study suggested that an app would be a good idea.
Zha and Costakos took that to heart. “She called for the app, so we’re going to make one,” Zha said.
Their research started in 2019. The research team included Zha, Costakos and nurse Lynn Dahlen, and they worked with 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.
The company’s name was derived from the doctors’ medical school alma mater, Dartmouth. Costakos is a physician at Mayo Clinic, where Zha did her medical residency.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Road closures, roundabout, mean construction season underway
EPHRATA — The grass is starting to turn green, the trees are starting to leaf out, construction crews are starting to build roundabouts – hey, it’s spring. At least one roundabout project is in its final phase, held over from fall 2025. The intersection of State Route 282 and Nat Washington Way will be closed the week of April 6 to allow crews to install permanent lights. “This really is the final (closure),” wrote Grant County Administrator Tom Gaines in a media release. “The roundabout will close at 6 a.m. Monday, and we plan to reopen by Friday, possibly sooner if the work finishes early.”
Ybarra announces run for Washington Senate
QUINCY — State Representative Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, has announced his candidacy for the Washington Senate. If he’s elected, he would replace Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, who announced her retirement in March.
Othello Community Museum to open April 25
OTHELLO — With a couple of new exhibits, a new heating-cooling system, rearranged displays and a thorough cleaning, the Othello Community Museum will open for the summer April 25. The goal, said Molly Popchock, museum board secretary, is to operate for a full season.