Morristown Medical Center First Hospital in World to Use Novel Artificial Intelligence Device to Improve Patient Safety by Detecting Bleeds Immediately During Endovascular Procedures and Heart Surgery

September 18, 2018

September 18, 2018, Morristown, NJ – Atlantic Health System’s Morristown Medical Center is the first hospital in the world to use the Saranas™ Early Bird™ Bleed Monitoring System, a novel device that uses a proprietary algorithm to detect and monitor bleeding associated with vascular (blood vessel or artery) access during endovascular procedures such as heart surgery.

A sheath (plastic tube) is a device that helps keep arteries and vessels open, so doctors can insert catheters and other devices during a cardiac or vascular surgery. The Early Bird™ Bleed Monitoring System sheath is embedded with sensors that measure the electrical resistance across the blood vessel. When a vessel is injured, blood begins to accumulate outside of the vessel, causing a change in the electrical resistance. When the device senses this change as a result of bleeding, audible and visual notifications are triggered, alerting the healthcare team to potential life-threatening bleeds immediately. If detected early, bleeds can be stopped and prevented, decreasing healthcare costs, complications, length of stay in the hospital, and in some cases, death.

“Twenty million patients in the United States undergo vascular access procedures each year, and approximately one million experience a severe bleeding complication,” said Philippe Genereux, MD, Co-Director of the Structural Heart Disease Program, Morristown Medical Center. “We are very excited at Morristown Medical Center to pioneer the world’s first smart sheath. By using the Early Bird™ Bleed Monitoring System during some of our more complicated procedures, we’re offering patients additional safety and confidence that they will be monitored at the highest level during and after their procedure.”

“As we advance clinical practice and perform more minimally invasive surgeries that require blood vessels and arteries to access the heart, we also must continue to advance our monitoring to ensure patient safety and continued positive outcomes,” said Linda Gillam, M.D., chair of cardiovascular medicine for Morristown Medical Center, Atlantic Health System. “We are excited to be the first to incorporate the latest medical innovations, such as the Early Bird™ Bleed Monitoring System, in our operating rooms to make surgeries and any type of endovascular procedures safer and help avoid life-threatening bleeding complications.”

Watch the Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System in action. The technology was invented at the Texas Heart Institute (Houston, TX).

The Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System is not yet cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is currently available for investigational use only.

About Heart Care at Atlantic Health System

The Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute at Morristown and Overlook Medical Centers, part of Atlantic Health System, is home to New Jersey’s largest cardiac surgery program, providing patients with world-class medical experts and award-winning cardiovascular diagnostic and treatment services. Specializing in open-heart, minimally invasive and non-invasive procedures, Gagnon offers its patients individualized care at a hospital that was named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery by US News and World Reports and one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care by Healthgrades. Nationally ranked in cardiology since 2012, the heart care team at Atlantic Health System includes cardiologists with expertise in multiple disciplines, vascular specialists, cardiac surgeons and allied health professionals.

About Atlantic Health System

Atlantic Health System, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., is an integrated health care delivery system powered by a workforce of over 16,500 team members and 4,800 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities. The system serves a population of 5 million, with over 400 sites of care, including six hospitals: Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center, Newton Medical Center, Chilton Medical Center, Hackettstown Medical Center and Goryeb Children’s Hospital.

Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs including 12 urgent care centers, Atlantic Rehabilitation and Atlantic Home Care and Hospice. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health.
In addition to the employed workforce, Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network represents more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ. Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of 6 regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability and is a founding member of both the PIER Consortium – Partners in Innovation, Education, and Research – a streamlined clinical trial system that will expand access to groundbreaking research across 6 health systems in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and AllSpire Health Partners, a consortium of 5 leading health care organizations dedicated to serving patients, families and communities in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

About Saranas

Saranas is a privately held Houston-based medical device company focused on improving patient outcomes through early detection and monitoring of internal bleeding complications. The company’s patented bleed monitoring system for vascular access procedures enables physicians to mitigate downstream consequences by addressing bleeding complications immediately, improving patient outcomes and lowering healthcare costs.