PRINCETON, NJ – The merger of two healthcare IT companies – one Canadian, one American – promises to give hospitals in both countries better access to obstetrics-based clinical decision support tools.
In a deal announced Tuesday, PeriGen, a Princeton, N.J.-based developer of OB-specific risk reduction solutions, has acquired the software and related assets of LMS Medical Systems, Ltd., a Montreal-based provider of maternal-fetal monitoring and interpretive software solutions.
“PeriGen’s acquisition unites two leaders in technology-driven OB-risk reduction solutions,” said Donald A. Deieso, PeriGen’s chairman and CEO, in a press release. “By integrating LMS’ suite of advanced fetal strip monitoring and interpretative solutions with PeriBirth, PeriGen will provide hospitals with a comprehensive and unmatched OB decision support and documentation solution. This uniquely powerful combination will provide the most advanced technology to help clinicians achieve the highest levels of patient safety while reducing risk and malpractice.”
PeriGen’s PeriBirth clinical decision support system is used in 36 hospitals nationwide, officials say, and is built on more than 6,500 OB protocols. In joining forces with LMS, PeriGen officials hope to make PeriBirth available to Canadian healthcare providers and add proprietary OB technologies that are cleared by the FDA, licensed by Health Canada and bear the CE mark for Europe.
LMS Medical Systems was founded by Emily Hamilton, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University, and has roughly 23 hospital clients. The company’s signature product is the CALM patient safety software suite, which uses advanced mathematical modeling and neural networks to improve outcomes for mothers and their infants.
The company had fallen on hard times lately. In April, McKesson Provider Solutions acquired the intellectual property for LMS’ OB surveillance and archival capabilities, including the company’s fetal monitor strip technology, which McKesson then licensed back to LMS to sell. And this past June, LMS filed a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
“From the inception of our company, using technology to improve the safety of labor and delivery for mother and baby has been at the heart of what we do,” said Hamilton, who will become senior vice president of research for PeriGen. “We’re proud and excited to be a part of PeriGen, an organization that shares our passion for advancing the quality of OB care and, thereby, helping to create optimal birth experiences and outcomes.”
