Featured Articles
NASA Once Again Relies on Mortara for Advanced Holter Monitoring
Since 2008, NASA has chosen Mortara as its Medical Devices Partner for use in ECG Monitoring at the International Space Station.
In November 2008, NASA selected Mortara Instrument’s H12+TM high-resolution Holter recorders to travel onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor STS-126 mission. The H12+ recorders were used to capture ECG data from the astronauts while working aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Data from the recorders were transmitted from the International Space Station to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas via satellite where it was analyzed by Mortara’s HScribeTM Holter analysis system.
Mortara had worked closely with NASA Ames Research Center’s engineers (Space Biosciences Division) to ready the H12+ recorders for the additional stress of space travel. Prior to launch, the H12+ recorders were also used for pre-flight scientific studies; reports generated by the HScribe system allowed for the in-space ECG findings to be compared to any pre-flight ECG study results.
The collaboration with NASA did not end with the Space Shuttle Endeavor STS-126 mission; on March 1, 2016, after a record year-long mission spent in space, Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov landed in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station mission as members of expeditions 43, 44, 45 and 46 to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Once again, the Mortara H12+ played a key role in that data collection.
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Reducing Alarm Fatigue, the New Challenge of Mortara Suite of Algorithms
In addition to designing and manufacturing a complete line of diagnostic cardiology and patient monitoring equipment, Mortara Instrument has always been recognized as a leader in the development of algorithms for safe and reliable ECG analysis. Now, Mortara has taken up a new challenge: Alarm Fatigue management.
Due to the increased number of monitored parameters available today and the need to reduce healthcare costs, algorithms must both be more sensitive and prevent more false alarms than in the past. Cardiac Care Units are always so busy that the large number of false alarms generated every day by monitoring systems can become a serious issue for healthcare personnel. This large number of false alarms induces so-called Alarm Fatigue’: in a nutshell, healthcare professionals, tired of wasting time in silencing false alarms, not only lose trust in their monitoring system, but tend to ignore possibly real alarms.
Mortara VERITASTM covers a large variety of diagnostic fields: from automatic resting ECG interpretation, to ambulatory Holter monitoring, to real-time algorithms specifically designed for bedside monitors and central stations, largely employed in Coronary Care and Intensive Care Units. Integrated in all Mortara product lines, VERITAS is constantly updated with new features and improved specificity and sensitivity.
Having obtained levels of sensitivity and specificity in line with major manufacturers is not enough to fight Alarm Fatigue. That is why much attention and investment have been devoted to reducing false alarm rates without affecting sensitivity. The updated VERITAS Arrhythmia algorithm defines a new standard in Alarm Fatigue management: up to 60percent less false alarms for lethal arrhythmias when compared to the most common algorithms available on the market, resulting in vast improvement of reliability of the systems on which it is installed.
The new version of VERITAS will be available on the Mortara monitoring line – SurveyorTM Central, Surveyor S4 telemetry, Surveyor S12 and S19 bedside monitors – starting November 2016*.
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Mortara, SurveyorTM and VERITASTM are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mortara Instrument, Inc.
*Not available in the U.S.
CardioConfirm: a Brand-New Connectivity Solution from Mortara Instrument
CardioConfirm is Mortara Instrument’s latest tool for connectivity and IT. CardioConfirm has been launched almost a decade after Mortara Instrument started a successful path leading to the adoption of the DICOM standard in all its ELITM series cardiographs, Stress Testing, Holter and Monitoring equipment.
The DICOM standard allows users to seamlessly integrate reports from Mortara devices with existing information systems available in hospitals. CardioConfirm takes connectivity a step further: in addition to traditional viewing options, its user-friendly interface is designed to provide full editing capabilities for all DICOM-enabled systems. Besides opening, editing and storing resting ECGs, physicians may now use dedicated tools for zooming in or measuring ECG waveforms, and may take advantage of a library of statements that conveniently appear with just a few key-strokes, on the basis of those normally used for reports.
CardioConfirm also offers the possibility of editing final reports of stress and Holter tests. Preliminary exports generated by DICOM-friendly systems can be edited by physicians from the main system workstation, a feature that makes the workflow smoother and reduces the time needed to review and edit these types of reports. This new OEM software allows any hospital or clinic to leverage their existing system by simply embedding CardioConfirm into it, thus eliminating the need to spend significant capital investment on an entirely new operation system.
CardioConfirm allows medical professionals to concentrate on patient care with its unique ability to integrate high quality diagnostic display of tests together with all patient information – including test results, vitals, and personal and family history – in one convenient location so that cardiologists do not need to look for additional test results that a technician may have recorded elsewhere.
As the health care landscape continues to grow and change, Mortara’s CardioConfirm is making a big impact on the continued transformation. Hospitals and health care professionals will have a more streamlined workflow, increased efficiency and the ability to focus more attention on patient care.
Mortara Instrument supplies CardioConfirm to all PACS and EMR providers and hospitals that want to expand or complete their PACS/EMR systems to include diagnostic cardiology workflow. It is available in a variety of versions that meet your need for a seamless integration with third party systems.
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DICOM is the registered trademark of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association for its standard publications relating to digital communications of medical information.
