There are many times in clinical practice where a student discovers that a problem handled in a complex way in practice problems and lectures is handled in a rather simple way in the real world. The opposite is probably true as well although less frequently (probably by virtue of all things feeling complicated for a learner).

For me this has always been neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Physiologic jaundice, pathologic jaundice, breast feeding jaundice, breast milk jaundice, and all of the scary eponymous disorders. The daunting-ness of the etiology of the disease obscures the relative simplicity of the treatment.

Enter the BiliTool.

ABM Clinical Protocol #22: Guidelines for Management of Jaundice in the Breastfeeding Infant 35 Weeks or More of Gestation — Revised 2017

“Bilirubin is the major breakdown product of hemoglobin released from senescent erythrocytes.”

Dan Longo in Harrisons Manual of Medicine