Artificial intelligence-based neonatal heart rate monitoring technologies: Systematic review

Table 1 Characteristics of the included studies

No.	Ref.	Study design	Sample size	Technology used	Key findings
1	Mestha et al[16]	Observational feasibility study	Neonates in NICU	Webcam-based photoplethysmography	Demonstrated the feasibility of continuous pulse monitoring using a webcam in the NICU
2	Ruhrberg Estévez et al[30]	Prospective clinical study	18 neonates	RGB-D camera system	Enabled continuous non-contact monitoring of neonatal vital signs in intensive care settings
3	Chen et al[22]	Prospective experimental study	15 neonates	Motion-compensated camera-based heart rate detection	Improved the accuracy of heart rate measurement despite neonatal motion artifacts
4	Gangaram-Panday et al[19]	Observational validation study	25 neonates	Dynamic light scattering technology	Demonstrated a strong correlation with ECG-based heart rate monitoring
5	Peeples et al[25]	Comparative observational study	40 neonates	Handheld Doppler ultrasound	Provided accurate bedside heart rate assessment in preterm neonates
6	Nagy et al[20]	Algorithm development and validation study	30 premature neonates	Camera-based monitoring algorithm	Achieved reliable continuous heart rate tracking in NICU settings
7	Lake et al[21]	Retrospective analytical study	> 100 neonates	Heart rate variability bioinformatics	The heart rate characteristics index predicted neonatal sepsis risk
8	Abdou et al[23]	Proof-of-concept protocol study	Neonatal resuscitation model	Novel heart rate detector device	Proposed a device for early heart rate detection during neonatal resuscitation
9	Maurya et al[24]	Pilot observational study	Neonates	Thermal and visible imaging	Demonstrated the feasibility of non-contact monitoring using thermal and visible imaging
10	Ahmad Hatib et al[31]	Prospective clinical study	Pediatric patients including neonates	Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG)	Demonstrated the feasibility of camera-based pulse detection in pediatric care
11	Cobos-Torres et al[26]	Experimental feasibility study	Neonates	Photoplethysmography imaging	Demonstrated simple non-contact neonatal vital sign monitoring
12	van Gastel et al[32]	Experimental NICU feasibility study	Neonates	Non-contact optical pulse monitoring	Demonstrated heart rate monitoring under low-light NICU conditions
13	Huang et al[33]	Dataset development and AI modeling study	Neonatal dataset	Spatio-temporal neural networks	Developed benchmark dataset for non-contact neonatal heart rate monitoring
14	Rapczynski et al[6]	Experimental signal processing study	Laboratory validation	Camera-based heart rate signal processing	Demonstrated the influence of video encoding on heart rate estimation accuracy
15	Marchionni et al[15]	Experimental optical monitoring study	Preterm neonates	Optical respiratory and heart rate monitoring	Enabled simultaneous measurement of respiration and heart rate
16	Nukaya et al[17]	Engineering feasibility study	Neonates	Contact-free physiological monitoring system	Demonstrated monitoring of heart rate, respiration, and body movement using non-invasive sensors

HR: Heart rate; NICU: Neonatal intensive care unit; ECG: Electrocardiography; RR: Respiratory rate; RGB: Red, green, blue; rPPG: Remote photoplethysmography.