PeriGen Introduces PeriCALM CheckList Software at AWHONN 2015

CRANBURY, N.J., June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- PeriGen, the global leader in real-time clinical decision support for obstetrics (OB) systems, announced today that it will debut its new, automated PeriCALM® CheckList™ solution in booth 325 at the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) 2015 Annual Convention. The event takes place June 13 to 17 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.

Checklists have emerged to play a central role in obstetrical patient safety.  Uterine contractions and fetal heart rate patterns are essential parameters in some of the most widely used checklists. For example, when administering oxytocin, nurses often use a checklist to help track critical factors during labor, often rolling out long tracings to manually count contractions and estimate accelerations, decelerations and other important statistics. Leveraging PeriGen's Patterns strip interpretation, PeriCALM CheckList simplifies the process by automatically counting and summarizing specific fetal heart rate patterns and other factors that are routinely tracked when administering oxytocin and displaying color-coded trends as well as a live status indicator on the toolbar.

The displays of the PeriCALM CheckList provide quick visual cues when checklist criteria are present and if they are persistent.  PeriCALM CheckList criteria are customized to the preferences and practices specific to the hospital or health system.

"We know that following an oxytocin management checklist is associated with better outcomes for both baby and mother. We also know that compliance with such protocols is far from optimal. Noncompliance can be harmful and very costly for hospitals," said Emily Hamilton, M.D.C.M., PeriGen's senior vice president of clinical research who led the development of PeriCALM Patterns and PeriCALM CheckList. "PeriCALM CheckList gives continuous and consistent assessment of checklist criteria. Nurses are freed from time-consuming repetitive calculations and can quickly focus their attention on oxytocin management and direct patient care."

The primary fetal heart rate-related factors that the PeriCALM CheckList can help clinicians track include those published in 2007 by the Hospital Corporation of American (HCA) as a result of the pioneering work of Stephen L. Clark, M.D., whose landmark studies examined the effects of using a conservative and specific checklist-based protocol for oxytocin administration on maternal and newborn outcomes. A 2014 study by HCA on 14,398 term inductions reported that the use of the oxytocin checklist was associated with a reduction in both neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions and cesarean births.

Dr. Clark's 2008 study titled "Reducing Obstetric Litigation through Alternations in Practice Patterns" found excessive use of contraction-stimulating drugs such as oxytocin to be the underlying problem in 45 percent of hypoxic brain injury claims. In other studies, incautious use of oxytocin was present in 71 percent of births where legal action was sought after severe asphyxia.  PeriCALM CheckList can assist the clinician by automatically counting and better visualizing some of the checklist parameters.

PeriGen will demonstrate PeriCALM CheckList and other perinatal solutions in its AWHONN booth 325 during exhibit hours. Dr. Hamilton will host an invitation-only reception to formally introduce the new solution 5:30 to 7 p.m. PDT on Sunday, June 14 at the Hyatt Regency, adjacent to the Long Beach Convention Center.

As part of its event participation, PeriGen will present a $2,500 contribution to AWHONN's Every Woman, Every Baby program that helps fund initiatives to improve patient safety and perinatal outcomes. Clinicians and others who wish to show their support can add their teams to the support list by visiting the PeriGen booth. Those who do will also receive a personalized certificate commemorating their participation.

View the short webinar on PeriCALM CheckList at perigen.com/checklists/

Tweet this: .@PeriGen to introduce PeriCALM CheckList, an automated #laboranddelivery checklist management solution at #AWHONN15 |http://bit.ly/1LY97HG

About PeriGen, Inc.
PeriGen, Inc. is an innovative provider of fetal surveillance systems employing patented, pattern-recognition and obstetrics technologies that empower perinatal clinicians to make confident, real-time decisions about the mothers and babies in their care. PeriGen's customer-centric team of clinicians and technologists builds the most advanced systems available to augment obstetric decision-making and improve communications among the clinical team at the point of care, while supporting data flow between healthcare IT systems.  PeriGen's fetal monitoring system is the only electronic fetal monitoring pattern recognition system that is validated by the NICHD. Visit us at www.PeriGen.com.

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