WhelpWise monitors
Donation protected
Veterinary Perinatal Specialties has been assisting veterinarians, service dog organizations and breeders to have safer parturitions (having babies in veterinary terms) since 1997. We have monitored over 26,000 births and have the only obstetrical outcome based data management system in the veterinary world.
Historically animals were not monitored when having their babies-little was known about how the babies were doing, maternal death rates averaged about 10%, and fetal death rates ran about 30%. We have changed those statistics to a maternal mortality rate of .01, and a fetal mortality rate of 1.5-4%.
Our company pioneered practice changing labor management techniques by providing a uterine monitor that can measure uterine contractions in animals with exceptional accuracy. Patent owner Karen Copley developed the service “WhelpWise”, specifically to provide the veterinary care manager with objective data about labor and fetal well-being. With the ability to document labor, new medication protocols for managing labor should problems occur, were developed. The WhelpWise service gives the veterinarian/researcher or animal care-taker advanced notice when a labor has begun, is not proceeding effectively, as well as alerting them to life threatening issues that may be occurring with the labor.
We are the company that has researched and developed the concept of “Low Dose Oxytocin”, and studied and developed the concept of integrating calcium into labor management protocols. We also were the first to document what “normal” fetal heart rate ranges are for canines and felines and promote using fetal heart rates as a way to establish fetal well-being by heart rates/heart rate patterns. We have also been involved with pharmacodynamic research; testing the effects of medications under development on a pregnant uterus.
As far as being a “green” company-we give a new meaning to repurpose and reuse. Our equipment has been “discards” from the human side. Our monitors were developed for remote obstetrical data collection-specifically for use in patient homes and doctor’s offices to manage preterm labor in humans. Because the equipment was designed to be used in the home setting, data transferred to a central receiver for interpretation it was a natural fit. Our monitors were originally manufactured in 1990, but with our equipment experts at Micropath we have been able to keep them humming along and we were able to secure replacement parts and purchase extra inventory from units that were not “pretty” enough for the human side until……the FDA and Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act ceased reimbursement for home uterine monitoring. High risk human pregnancies no longer have the option of being monitored from home, and Moms’ are now forced to be hospitalized for months to keep an eye on uterine contractions and the baby(ies) instead of being monitored from home.
The company that we had procured our equipment from was the pioneer in home monitoring and was recently purchased by a much larger corporation. This corporation was working on FDA approval for other medical devices not related to obstetrical monitoring. During a routine FDA check, the FDA discovered that the uterine monitors had been modified to accommodate a wireless phone connection (cellular). Even though there was documentation that they had discussed the changes with the FDA and the FDA did not require the change in data transmission to need a full FDA clearance, the FDA “changed their minds” and gave the company two options; pay over a million dollars in fines or hand over ALL the units (and supportive parts) to the FDA for destruction. The company had only one choice-their primary form of business was no longer being covered by insurance, so there was no reason to keep the uterine monitors and chose to hand them over for destruction.
Needless to say-we could not believe that the government would destroy over 3000 units and parts that could be used elsewhere!!!! We begged and pleaded, hired attorneys to try and save the monitors as the veterinary world does not require FDA approval on devices so we were hoping to convince the FDA that the units should come to us. We lost the fight and with it our equipment development budget. EVERYTHING went to the electronic parts shredder, even the POWER cords!!! As a small business this loss was close to devastating. We have continued to provide our services, but haven’t been able to re-establish our equipment budget fast enough to keep up with the rapidly changing technology.
What we need your help with is getting us back on track for new monitors that will have the ability to transfer data over cellular or wireless connections. In the past year more people have dropped their land lines and changes in many of the business systems are making it difficult for veterinary offices and service dog organizations to use our service.
Our goal is $35,000.00
This will cover the development and manufacture of 5 units, if we can raise more than that we can make more units-getting more into veterinarian’s offices and more service dog homes/facilities, and more of our exceptional breeders can take advantage of our service.
We have had our first stage of a prototype unit out for about 3 years, but need to develop and add technology that will accommodate multiple ways to send data and move forward in equipment finalization and production. Our equipment partner, Micropath has been on the cutting edge of our monitor equipment development and repair for our entire time in business.
Here is a photo of our old equipment. While it has been a work-horse, we can't get replacement parts and it is three times as much weight to ship, and requires a wired "land" phone line.
Here is a photo of our new monitor-everything that is in the old unit is all neatly packaged into one tiny package!! Every thing you see in the box up above is all in this little monitor!
Meet Darryll Lindsey-our equipment Guru at Micropath and the developer of our new little monitor. These protypes have been throughly tested-just need to add the ability to send data over wireless/cell phone technology!!
We nee YOUR HELP to build MORE of these!!!
Meet David at Micropath-he's trying to breathe life into one of the old unit "recorders" thankfully he could fix it-we have NO spare parts!! Did I say the folks at Micropath are GREAT!! It is getting harder and harder to repair the old units as parts are not being made and what we did have ended up in the shredder!!
Some photos of our "Moms" being monitored:
One of our service dogs snoozing comfortably. The monitor is tucked under her tummy. The X's are where we are finding the heart rates of the puppies!
One of our many success stories in dogs, Mom and puppies doing well!!
On the monitor-the sensor can be placed with a belt or tucked under her
We monitor many rare breeds of animals to help preserve the rare breed gene pool.
Meet Everett!!! He was the only puppy from a very high risk Mom. His genetics could not be replaced!! I think he was worth it don't you??? About 20% of the animals we monitor are the "last of thier lines".
Here is our new monitor in use-same concept as the old monitor but all is in one small monitor!! Now we just need to add the cellular/wireless feature!! She certainly looks like she is enjoying her monitor session-all comfy on the bed!!
Another proud Mom!!
We will be grateful for any small amout of help you can give! We have made "having babies" in the animal world much safer and are helping to preserve genetics/breeds/species that would be lost without our help!!
For those of you who make a substantial donation we will honor discounts for the next four services. For those of you who may be donating but not having a litter. you may donate your percentage to one of the many Service Dog organizations we work with.
Donation of $500.00 - 5%
Donation of $1000.00 - 10%
Donation of $1500.00 - 15%
Donation of $2000.00 -20%
THANK YOU!!!
Karen
Historically animals were not monitored when having their babies-little was known about how the babies were doing, maternal death rates averaged about 10%, and fetal death rates ran about 30%. We have changed those statistics to a maternal mortality rate of .01, and a fetal mortality rate of 1.5-4%.
Our company pioneered practice changing labor management techniques by providing a uterine monitor that can measure uterine contractions in animals with exceptional accuracy. Patent owner Karen Copley developed the service “WhelpWise”, specifically to provide the veterinary care manager with objective data about labor and fetal well-being. With the ability to document labor, new medication protocols for managing labor should problems occur, were developed. The WhelpWise service gives the veterinarian/researcher or animal care-taker advanced notice when a labor has begun, is not proceeding effectively, as well as alerting them to life threatening issues that may be occurring with the labor.
We are the company that has researched and developed the concept of “Low Dose Oxytocin”, and studied and developed the concept of integrating calcium into labor management protocols. We also were the first to document what “normal” fetal heart rate ranges are for canines and felines and promote using fetal heart rates as a way to establish fetal well-being by heart rates/heart rate patterns. We have also been involved with pharmacodynamic research; testing the effects of medications under development on a pregnant uterus.
As far as being a “green” company-we give a new meaning to repurpose and reuse. Our equipment has been “discards” from the human side. Our monitors were developed for remote obstetrical data collection-specifically for use in patient homes and doctor’s offices to manage preterm labor in humans. Because the equipment was designed to be used in the home setting, data transferred to a central receiver for interpretation it was a natural fit. Our monitors were originally manufactured in 1990, but with our equipment experts at Micropath we have been able to keep them humming along and we were able to secure replacement parts and purchase extra inventory from units that were not “pretty” enough for the human side until……the FDA and Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act ceased reimbursement for home uterine monitoring. High risk human pregnancies no longer have the option of being monitored from home, and Moms’ are now forced to be hospitalized for months to keep an eye on uterine contractions and the baby(ies) instead of being monitored from home.
The company that we had procured our equipment from was the pioneer in home monitoring and was recently purchased by a much larger corporation. This corporation was working on FDA approval for other medical devices not related to obstetrical monitoring. During a routine FDA check, the FDA discovered that the uterine monitors had been modified to accommodate a wireless phone connection (cellular). Even though there was documentation that they had discussed the changes with the FDA and the FDA did not require the change in data transmission to need a full FDA clearance, the FDA “changed their minds” and gave the company two options; pay over a million dollars in fines or hand over ALL the units (and supportive parts) to the FDA for destruction. The company had only one choice-their primary form of business was no longer being covered by insurance, so there was no reason to keep the uterine monitors and chose to hand them over for destruction.
Needless to say-we could not believe that the government would destroy over 3000 units and parts that could be used elsewhere!!!! We begged and pleaded, hired attorneys to try and save the monitors as the veterinary world does not require FDA approval on devices so we were hoping to convince the FDA that the units should come to us. We lost the fight and with it our equipment development budget. EVERYTHING went to the electronic parts shredder, even the POWER cords!!! As a small business this loss was close to devastating. We have continued to provide our services, but haven’t been able to re-establish our equipment budget fast enough to keep up with the rapidly changing technology.
What we need your help with is getting us back on track for new monitors that will have the ability to transfer data over cellular or wireless connections. In the past year more people have dropped their land lines and changes in many of the business systems are making it difficult for veterinary offices and service dog organizations to use our service.
Our goal is $35,000.00
This will cover the development and manufacture of 5 units, if we can raise more than that we can make more units-getting more into veterinarian’s offices and more service dog homes/facilities, and more of our exceptional breeders can take advantage of our service.
We have had our first stage of a prototype unit out for about 3 years, but need to develop and add technology that will accommodate multiple ways to send data and move forward in equipment finalization and production. Our equipment partner, Micropath has been on the cutting edge of our monitor equipment development and repair for our entire time in business.
Here is a photo of our old equipment. While it has been a work-horse, we can't get replacement parts and it is three times as much weight to ship, and requires a wired "land" phone line.
Here is a photo of our new monitor-everything that is in the old unit is all neatly packaged into one tiny package!! Every thing you see in the box up above is all in this little monitor!
Meet Darryll Lindsey-our equipment Guru at Micropath and the developer of our new little monitor. These protypes have been throughly tested-just need to add the ability to send data over wireless/cell phone technology!!
We nee YOUR HELP to build MORE of these!!!
Meet David at Micropath-he's trying to breathe life into one of the old unit "recorders" thankfully he could fix it-we have NO spare parts!! Did I say the folks at Micropath are GREAT!! It is getting harder and harder to repair the old units as parts are not being made and what we did have ended up in the shredder!!
Some photos of our "Moms" being monitored:
One of our service dogs snoozing comfortably. The monitor is tucked under her tummy. The X's are where we are finding the heart rates of the puppies!
One of our many success stories in dogs, Mom and puppies doing well!!
On the monitor-the sensor can be placed with a belt or tucked under herWe monitor many rare breeds of animals to help preserve the rare breed gene pool.Meet Everett!!! He was the only puppy from a very high risk Mom. His genetics could not be replaced!! I think he was worth it don't you??? About 20% of the animals we monitor are the "last of thier lines".
Here is our new monitor in use-same concept as the old monitor but all is in one small monitor!! Now we just need to add the cellular/wireless feature!! She certainly looks like she is enjoying her monitor session-all comfy on the bed!!
Another proud Mom!!
We will be grateful for any small amout of help you can give! We have made "having babies" in the animal world much safer and are helping to preserve genetics/breeds/species that would be lost without our help!!
For those of you who make a substantial donation we will honor discounts for the next four services. For those of you who may be donating but not having a litter. you may donate your percentage to one of the many Service Dog organizations we work with.
Donation of $500.00 - 5%
Donation of $1000.00 - 10%
Donation of $1500.00 - 15%
Donation of $2000.00 -20%
THANK YOU!!!
Karen
Organizer
Karen Copley
Organizer
Wheat Ridge, CO