From September 12 to 16, 2025, the Power of AMOR International NBAS/NBO Faculty and Champions Meeting was held at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University. The core team led by Professor Li Hui from the Departments of Pediatrics and Neonatology at the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) attended as the sole invited team from China. Team members included graduate students Jiang Jiaqi and Zhu Leijing from the Department of Pediatrics at the FAH, as well as cross-disciplinary collaborator Professor Zhu Zhongliang from the Northwest University School of Medicine.
Guided by infants’ needs, the meeting focused on culture, policy, and research, and explored the clinical application, innovative development, and global collaboration of NBAS (Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale) and NBO (Newborn Behavioral Observations) technologies. More than 80 leaders in the field from around the world participated in the five-day meeting, engaging in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge technologies, clinical pain points, and future directions in neonatal behavioral assessment.
At the meeting, Professor Li Hui’s team presented their original research, “Development and Application of the Infant Behavioral Observation System (IBO) Based on the NBO”, in a poster format. The study overcame the limitation of the original NBO technology to the neonatal period, extending applicability to infants aged 4-12 months, and, through multicenter, large-sample clinical trials, fully validated the system’s scientific rigor and clinical feasibility. Multiple international scholars highly praised the study’s innovation and practicality, noting that it offers a new pathway for technological expansion and clinical application in the field of infant behavioral observation.
During the academic exchange session, the team engaged in in-depth dialogue with professors from related fields at Harvard Medical School, systematically sharing recent progress in infant behavioral assessment and intervention. The two sides conducted in-depth discussions on issues such as challenges in technology application and interpretation of clinical data. Owing to its rigorous design and significant practical value, the team’s research outcomes received unanimous recognition and praise from Harvard Medical School experts.
The team was invited to participate in the “Application of Art in Education and Clinical Practice” thematic workshop at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where they systematically studied the implementation pathways and core rationale of art therapy, gaining insights into its unique value in early childhood education, psychological intervention, and health healing, thereby accumulating international experience for the subsequent integration of art-therapy concepts into infant and toddler behavioral assessment and intervention
During the workshop’s thematic discussions, the team engaged in in-depth exchanges with global peers on the revision of the NBO Training Manual, shared experience, and put forward multiple concrete recommendations, which were endorsed by international experts and incorporated into the newly revised manual; the team was also invited to join the global NBAS research consortium.
In addition, the team also visited world-leading medical and research institutions such as Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, the Nielsen Laboratory, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent establishment of international collaboration platforms and for advancing the high-quality development of pediatrics at the FAH.
