LaRae Miller: Advancing NICU Care for All

LaRae Miller BSN, RNC-NIC, C-NNC has spent more than two decades caring for hospitals’ tiniest patients. She guides parents in nurturing children who, like she and her sister once did, entered the world requiring extra assistance.

“We’ve had multiple babies in my family end up in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I was a preemie myself, so it was always something that I found interesting,” LaRae said. “You get to see a baby you can hold in the palm of your hand grow into a child that is going home with their family.”

One of the pieces of equipment that she uses to help make those miracles happen is Gentherm’s Blanketrol III. When she’s not directly saving lives, she educates others on the vital role of proper temperature management control.

Approximately five out of every 1,000 kids are going to be in a situation where cooling is necessary to preserve the brain from further damage, LaRae explained.

“Since 2012, I’ve seen the impact of whole-body cooling using the Blanketrol on more than 100 children. Cooling therapy has provided an opportunity to give hope to families for an improved neurological outcome where previously there was none,” LaRae said. “Once upon a time we had very little to offer in the way of neurological protection. Families were counseled to prepare for the absolute worst. Being able to offer cooling has been a game changer. We have a long way to go but have come so far in helping protect the brains of infants born with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, also known as HIE.”

LaRae first began working with the Blanketrol when she was a nurse educator at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit. The hospital started looking into an induced hypothermia protocol, and LaRae was charged with applying the therapy’s best practices. After extensive research, she found the Blanketrol and decided to move forward with Gentherm.

Now serving at New York Presbyterian, LaRae has continued her mission to expand access to critical medical equipment. She has worked to ensure that more infants can benefit from advanced therapies despite tightening budgets.

“I was a nurse manager before I became an educator, so fiscal responsibility was drilled into my head. One of the things I liked about Gentherm was the lower price and the continued clinical support via telephone 24/7. We had a large Medicaid population, so we had to be very conscious of every dollar we spent. We could afford one of the more expensive devices or we could afford three Blanketrols and have the opportunity to offer two more kids the therapy without turning anyone away.”

As a clinical advisor for Gentherm Medical, LaRae is now helping make the Blanketrol’s temperature management therapy accessible to all who need it.

“The impact that you make as a nurse, it’s not just today, it’s not short term, it’s for the rest of your patient’s life. It carries a high level of integrity and accountability because one mistake now can change the trajectory of their life significantly.”