News & Events

E&C Clients to Launch First Multicenter Study to Improve Obstetrical Care Quality and Risk Management

New York City – February 1, 2006 – E&C Medical Intelligence, Inc. today announced a plan to initiate a study by five of the IPR_OB client organizations that will offer an unprecedented look at the OB clinical environment. This blinded prospective study will examine several clinical attributes to determine the degree to which real-time, protocol-driven software can affect the clinical documentation of obstetrical care. The group will look at how real-time protocol driven intervention may differ by different clinical cultures, settings and patient population s .
Shoshana Haberman, MD, PhD, Director of Perinatal, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maimonides Medical Center, New York, NY will be the lead PI. Dorothy Berry, E&C Vice President of Patient Safety and Risk Management, will liaise with the group on behalf of E&C.

“Systems like E&C’s represent the future of obstetrical care,” said Dr. Haberman. “We must learn the best ways of having this type of sophisticated decision support interact with clinicians to continue to evolve its role as an integral part of the obstetrics clinical environment. This study will bear the challenge of identifying deficiencies in obstetrical practice and enhances obstetrical care in real time.”

“We already use IPR data to understand practice patterns within our organization”, said Glenn Markensen, MD, Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA. “Now, with this study, we will have the opportunity to learn across organizations.”

“With a database of over 100,000 births—and growing with each day—I’m looking forward to when we will be able to look at all of that IPR data to better understand how we manage high risk clinical situations such as labor abnormalities and other obstetrical challenges and implement even better practices,” said Wayne Cohen, MD, Chairman, OB/Gyn, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center-MediSys Health System, New York, NY.

Seen as an important step toward tapping into and analyzing the world’s largest standardized data base of OB protocols and outcomes, the announcement of the Multi-center Study comes on the heels of the birth of the 100,000 th baby using E&C’s IPR_OB system. Furthermore, it is actually the second research initiative using the IPR_OB database. “MedStar's Research Institute is currently leading a study with funding from the Commonwealth Fund to determine the impact of a real-time protocol-driven computerized patient chart on adherence to best practice protocols and outcomes of care,” said Eyal Ephrat, MD, CEO of E&C. “The potential of this type of database to be used extensively for clinical, patient safety and medical informatics research—to offer an unprecedented and unique look at the OB clinical environment and beyond—is immense. The more data we can have in the analysis, the better we are able to truly understand best practices for perinatal care. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the birth of the 100,000 th IPR_OB baby than to tap this data base for the benefit of everyone.”

E&C helps eliminate clinical errors in real-time and improve the quality of care in the OB environment through its IPR_OB product. Functioning as a complete intelligent OB chart for both physicians and nurses, the system proactively supports clinicians in providing the highest level of care and avoiding clinical mistakes, while generating meticulous documentation. At its core is a comprehensive clinical knowledgebase comprised of over 6,500 best practice rules and 13,000 clinical data fields. IPR_OB’s powerful inference engine analyzes the latest patient data against this extensive clinical knowledgebase to offer clinicians appropriate choices of care, documentation and risk management pathways for the current clinical situation. The complete IPR_OB package also includes an extensive risk management consultancy to help address variations from the hospital’s accepted best practices.

About E&C Medical Intelligence
E&C Medical Intelligence, Inc. is a pioneer in automated clinical management support and documentation. The company provides real-time, knowledge-based best practice software systems and associated consulting services throughout the perinatal continuum (prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum). E&C systems have proven their ability to enhance the safety and quality of care, while reducing medical liability risk. E&C is based in New York with offices in Chicago, Phoenix, Baltimore, Nashville and Orlando. Visit the E&C website at: www.ecmed.com.

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