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The Ongoing Care of Congenital and Perinatal Infections (OKAPI) program, aims to improve access to care for newborns with infections.

Our Mission

The Ongoing Care of Congenital and Perinatal Infections (OKAPI) program at UT Health San Antonio aims to ensure that wherever infants are born, all newborns and their health teams have access to 24/7 pediatric infectious diseases support.

The OKAPI program is supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It is free to all providers at participating centers, including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, infection preventionists, administrators, and more!

We provide 24/7 telehealth support for questions on any and all neonatal infectious diseases topics, including:

  • Antibiotic use in newborns
  • Infection control and prevention for mothers and babies
  • Confirmed or suspected sepsis
  • Congenital infections such as syphilis, hepatitis, HIV
  • and others…

For questions on infectious diseases topics, or if your center would like to participate in the OKAPI program, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact Us

Joseph B Cantey M.D., MPH

OKAPI Director

About Us

Learn more about the leadership, clinicians, researchers, and support team behind the OKAPI Program.

Clinical Resources

A selection of clinically useful tools, articles, and media for health care workers caring for newborns with proven or suspected infection.

Research

A curated selection of research generated by the OKAPI program, or by other scientists studying neonatal telehealth applications.

Telehealth

Telehealth has been used successfully for other aspects of newborn care. Telehealth strategies to overcome geographic disparities or workforce issues have been successful for other neonatal diseases. For example, telemedicine evaluation of infants with cleft lip and palate who are born in rural nurseries is cost-effective and prevents unnecessary interhospital transfers. Similarly, telehealth can be used to screen infants for retinopathy of prematurity or congenital heart disease, support newborn resuscitation efforts, and provide perinatal care. However, telehealth has not been used to address the critical disparities in neonatal infectious diseases, such as sepsis and antibiotic stewardship.  The OKAPI program aims to change that.

Telehealth Benefits