LMS News

2005-05-19
Dr. Emily Hamilton to speak at the NNEPQIN “Preventing Injury During Delivery: A Response to the JCAHO Sentinel Alert” conference.

Montreal, Quebec - Dr. Emily Hamilton, Founder of LMS Medical Systems, a healthcare technology company and developer of the CALM™ system (Computer Assisted Labor Management), will be speaking at the upcoming NNEPQIN “Preventing Injury During Delivery: A Response to the JCAHO Sentinel Alert” Conference, May 20-21 at The Lake Morey Resort Fairlee, Vermont.

The goal of this conference is to aid clinicians and quality specialists in the implementation of JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) recommendations resulting from Sentinel Event Alert #30, July 2004. This Alert was issued as a result of the number of perinatal death or permanent disability cases that have been reported for review since 1996 (for details please see www.jcaho.org). The conference will provide clinical guidelines in Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Anesthesia, as well as tools to run effective in-situ simulations and event debriefings.

Dr. Hamilton’s presentation “Defining and Responding to Non-Reassuring Fetal Status: A Multidisciplinary Approach,” digs deeper into the number one cited root cause of these reported adverse advents – communications. She will focus on the question: How can clinicians communicate clearly when there is no recognized agreement on the degree and duration of fetal heart rate abnormalities that warrant intervention?

In order to improve communications, one should first agree on what it is that constitutes such an abnormality and then provide a clear way to recognize when it occurs. Until now conventional medicine has not had the capability to measure fetal heart rate patterns and their correlation to outcomes.

In her talk, Dr. Hamilton will draw from her research using computerized pattern recognition algorithms on several thousand electronic fetal heart rate records, to demonstrate how clinicians can now identify and measure fetal heart rate patterns and measure their correlation with outcome. This system, utilizing definitions taken from professional obstetrical bodies, enables clinicians to select thresholds that define "How much is too much" in abnormal fetal patterns providing teams with a consistent analysis and common language about electronic fetal monitoring.

Dr. Hamilton is an associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill University. She is also Vice President of Medical Research at LMS Medical Systems in Montreal where she has guided the company in bringing to market a set of cutting edge obstetrical tools for the evaluation of labor and fetal tolerance to labor in order to help teams improve outcomes and reduce risk. The CALM tools incorporate statistical processes to quantify normal and abnormal labor progression as well as digital signal processing and neural network applications for the identification of abnormal fetal heart rate patterns. The CALM Curve provides for consistent and objective assessment of the labor progress at the bedside. CALM Patterns provides objective, real-time measurement and classification of fetal heart rate patterns. These tools address themes commonly found in adverse outcomes namely, failure to recognize and respond to abnormal tracings and prolonged labor.

For more information about NNEPQIN (Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network), please see http://www.nnepqin.org.