The press release from GE Healthcare informs that the company has “an exclusive agreement with MP4 Solutions to deliver the Centricity Perinatal Solution in conjunction with AirStrip OB®, a state-of-the-art technology that allows obstetricians to use their PDAs (personal digital assistants) or Smart Phones to remotely access fetal heart tracings, maternal contraction patterns, and other critical, real-time data from labor & delivery units.”
How cool is that? The fetal heart rate monitoring is a standard way to monitor laboring women and foetuses. Doing it remotely is superbly convenient, especially in view of the fact that some women can labor for days: hence an obstetrician can be in the office or at home in bed with her husband, looking at the PDA, of course. So we figured to check out the technology. Here’s some info from the company:
When the demands of your practice cause you to be temporarily absent from labor and delivery (on call, at the surgery center, etc.), AirStrip OB® allows real time, remote access to your laboring or antepartum patients. Designed by an Obstetrician, for Obstetricians, AirStrip® OB eliminates the guess work out of evaluating fetal heart tracings over the phone and allows you to greatly improve the overall care of your patients.
Furthermore, AirStrip OB® charts the real-time and historical waveform data coming from Centricity Perinatal (QS) exactly as it would be seen on a monitor in Labor and Delivery. AirStrip OB® can display virtually any real-time or historical charting data from Centricity Perinatal (QS), including but not limited to the patient census, notes, vital signs, cervical exam status and room number. Once the AirStrip OB® application is started on the PDA, a robust and dynamic user interface provides secure, HIPAA compliant access to your chosen hospital. The patients you wish to evaluate are then chosen from the “real time” census screen.
The “real time” strip and contraction pattern appears on the high resolution PDA screen within 5-10 seconds. Options are then available for historical scrolling of the strip, full scale zooming options (in or out) and access to other real time critical data such as maternal vital signs and strip annotations.
Depending on how and where you practice, multiple connectivity options exist via the PDA and Smart Phone…
Airstrip OB® is in no way intended to remove care from the bedside; nor is it intended to keep doctors out of the hospital. Rather, this software application is indicated for use by obstetricians who need to stay connected with their patients, even though the demands of their day necessitate their periodic absence from Labor and Delivery.
It seems that an obstetrician and an anesthesiologist in the call room on the OB floor and a PDA would probably be OK. Regardless, you get the idea.
AirStrip OB® is designed to work through a cell phone connection, as well as Wi-Fi (802.11) and Bluetooth.
Check out the website (warning: the website seems to be incompatible with Firefox!)…
Flashback: Freedom Patch™ Contraction Sensor
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