Michael David Litten started his career in healthcare 41 years ago. He has been blessed to represent products and companies that make a difference in people’s lives, including Children’s Medical Ventures (ChMV), now Philips Healthcare. Since 1991, Children’s Medical Ventures has been committed to improving the developmental outcomes of hospitalized infants worldwide by offering solutions to help clinicians help every baby reach his or her full developmental potential.
When ChMV was founded back in 1991, developmental care was in its infancy, “miracle babies” weighted 1,000 grams, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was bright and noisy, and babies were routinely cared for by being placed flat on their back. Over the years, amazing changes in the care offered to premature and hospitalized infants has taken place. Developmental care practices are becoming more widely recognized throughout the world as an essential part of infant care. Babies are surviving at lower weights, and the NICU is becoming an increasingly more nurturing environment for babies and their families.
Unfortunately, for far too many of the more than 500,000 premature infants born in the United States, care has not changed much since 1991. Michael’s passion for these most fragile vulnerable human beings was the genesis of the Foundation for Premature Infants, Inc. 501 (c) (3). His vision is for the Foundation to be the voice for those without a voice, premature infants. Michael believes that the Foundation can be an advocate for premature infants, assuring that their voices are heard and their needs are met in a developmentally supportive way.
