The Conference Program and the role of Intrapartum Surveillance in Maternal/Fetal Health

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Dr. van der Slikke: "We're here at the Sheraton in Stockholm with Lennart Nordstrom and Jason Gardosi at the ISIS Conference. You're the hosts of this conference - Lennart, would you tell us something about how the conference is going?"

Dr. Nordstrom: "We've had the first day of the conference, which is a two-day conference. So far, we've gotten a very good response from the audience. It's invited speakers from all over the world, and we tried to cover most of the issues on intrapartum monitoring and the new development, and so far, I feel happy myself."

Dr. van der Slikke: "The symbol ISIS - what does it stand for, the name - ISIS?"

Dr. Nordstrom: "ISIS is an abbreviation for International Symposium on Intrapartum Surveillance, which actually covers the field of fetus surveillance during labor."

Dr. van der Slikke: "You told us you have a two-day symposium, but you had one day. I think it was rather successful with the CTG course - master course - you called it. Why did you call it a master course?"

Dr. Nordstrom: "This is the first master class on CTG, and when Jason and myself discussed the program, we realized that we had availability to all the experts in the world - the best experts in the world in the field of CTG. So we thought it would be advisable to use them and to share their knowledge when they were here; so we arranged the one-day course on CTG."

Dr. van der Slikke: "You're a master yourself, I may say so. Did you learn anything that day?"

Dr. Nordstrom: "Yes, you always learn something when you meet colleagues with the very best knowledge in the world, and I feel I'm lucky myself to be the organizer to share their knowledge, and to have the possibility of them speaking in all the informal meetings around here."

Dr. van der Slikke: "Can you imagine the most important things we've addressed today?"

Dr. Nordstrom: "We tried to cover different fields, both in knowledge of follow-up, as well as technology, and updating the research frontiers. When looking into the new methodologies, it's a long way from development to clinical practice, but we're still getting more and more evidence where to go, which are the possibilities, and which are the pitfalls in the research."

Dr. van der Slikke: "Thank you very much. It's already the fifth one - the fifth ISIS - can you, Jason, tell us something about the history of ISIS?"

Dr. Gardosi: "We started on the first meeting in 1990, and this is the fifth one, as you said, since then. Really the initial plan and the interest was to look at the new technologies on monitoring during labor, and there were a whole number of technologies, such as: ECG wave form analysis, fetoscopy, pulsoximetry - which were being presented. There was excitement about the potential of some of these technologies, and the meeting was put together with putting these into the context of the possible future role for intrapartum monitoring. Then the interesting things happened over the next few meetings, more and more skeptical and critical approaches were taken towards examining the promise and the current state of the technology, much debate and discussion was had on whether or not they are ready to be introduced into clinical practice. Then over the next, perhaps, meeting or two - more and more we realized that there was also some short comings in the interpretation of the current technology which we have, which is the fetal heart rate monitoring and uterine pressure monitoring - or the topogragh. This is why, as Lennart said earlier on, we have decided at this meeting to put a special emphasis on the teaching and the discussion of the merits of CTG monitoring - where we are today. This was a master class because this was addressed to people who were really using this and have had further information and experience, and we wanted to sort of see, how we can even further improve the application of the technology that we have today. The general standard of these meetings have always placed a great emphasis on discussion, critical evaluation, and interaction from the floor, from people who are essentially really quite interested in the general area of monitoring during labor. That's why I think it's great fun for everybody involved because it's very interactive, and I think as medicine, we all learn a lot from this interaction."

Dr. van der Slikke: "Yes. Is it already decided where the next ISIS will be?"

Dr. Gardosi: "Yes, we are planning the next ISIS back where it started in England, and we're not quite sure which particular city, but it will be organized by Professor Arulkumaran and myself. We already have some ideas on which way this is going and evolving, and I think the next year or two will see. I think, us putting together this sort of program, that will continue the logical progress of these meetings and exploring issues relating to intrapartum care."

Dr. van der Slikke: "Thank you very much."

Dr. Gardosi: "Thank you."

Dr. Nordstrom: "Thank you."