Dr. Lisa Karamardian made the pitch for funding to the Hoag Innovators in October 2023. In a “Shark Tank” style of meeting, Karamardian sought to convince donors to provide money for PeriGen artificial intelligence technology, an automated early warning system for obstetrics.
Karamardian, Hoag’s Jeffrey M. Carlton Endowed Chair in Women’s Health in honor of Dr. Anne M. Kent, received nearly $300,000 in funding that night. Eight months later, in July, the PeriWatch Vigilance software was out of the box and ready to be used for patients at Hoag in both Newport Beach and Irvine.
There were a record 8,387 babies born at Hoag last year, the second-highest volume in the state.
PeriWatch helped Hoag improve outcomes for hundreds of mothers and babies, although Karamardian admitted there was skepticism from nurses about the software at first.
PeriWatch Vigilance helps guide care and decision-making more collaboratively, rather than subjectively, said Tiffany Stewart, Hoag’s executive director of maternal child health.
Stewart explained how the software’s real-time analysis during labor guides physicians.
“If you and I and Dr. Karamardian were all standing together, we could look at a color [the software] shoots [across a computer screen],” Stewart said. “We would know how we’re doing, related to if we can continue the labor or if we need to make the decision that this baby needs to be delivered sooner.”
That real-word application is key to Hoag Innovators, which meets biannually and held its spring meeting on April 16 at The Cove at UC Irvine.
Robert Brunswick, a Newport Beach resident who founded Hoag Innovators with his wife Kitty in 2017, said that it has raised more than $28 million since its inception and is aiming for $50 million by 2028.
The group now has 151 members, each of whom contribute at least $250,000. At last week’s meeting, two pitches received their full amount of requested funding, $500,000 each.
Dr. Alison Wu, medical director of Hoag’s OB/GYN hospitalist program, was funded for an obstetric and perinatal simulation lab. Dr. January Lopez, the medical director of breast imaging at the Sue J. Gross Comprehensive Breast Center, was funded for the Koning Vera Breast CT, a high-resolution 3D breast imaging system.
“Dr. Wu’s simulation center is going to train all of the doctors in my department, and my nursing staff,” Karamardian said. “It’s just helping us to keep getting to the next level.”