Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy
Program Overview

How the Program Works | Facts You Need to Know | NVP Outcomes

How the Program Works

Alere's Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy Program includes at-home visits by obstetrical nurses, who administer therapies prescribed by physicians and work with patients to educate them about their condition. Nurses also help patients adjust their diets to facilitate digestion and improve self-care measures for symptom relief.

Prescribed medication is delivered continuously via a pocket-sized microinfusion pump. Dosing is highly individualized and titrated by Alere pharmacists for optimal relief of nausea and vomiting. In addition to the visits, nurses keep in touch with patients via telephonic interactions to help patients:

• Alleviate nausea and vomiting symptoms with minimal side effects
• Prevent health problems
• Correct dehydration and electrolyte imbalance
• Stabilize weight loss
• Maintain adequate nutrition
• Reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits
• Return to work and daily activities of life

Alere's NVP program offers the following benefits:

• An initial home assessment
• Patient education
• Equipment and medical supplies (as required)
• Experience/expertise in obstetrical home care
• 24-hour nurse support line
• Obstetrical pharmacy consultations
• Patient-specific medication and dosing guidelines
• Microinfusion pump technology
• Detailed clinical reports to the physician and case manager

Facts You Need to Know

Nausea and vomiting occur in 45 percent to 50 percent of all pregnancies. Hospitalizations due to NVP cost an average of $1,400 a day and last an average of three days.

Persistent nausea and vomiting associated with weight loss, fluid/electrolyte imbalance and metabolic disturbances (better known as hypermesis gravidarum) occur in 1.5 percent to 3 percent of pregnancies. More common in first pregnancies, NVP occurs in the first trimester and early second trimester and is usually resolved within 15 to 16 weeks of gestation, although it can persist even longer.

NVP Outcomes

Results from a published study1 showed that Alere’s NVP program reduced NVP symptoms for 382 out of the 428 women receiving outpatient treatment via subcutaneous pump prescribed by their physician from 2000 to 2002.

Other results:

• 78 percent increase in weight gain or stabilization
• 89 percent reduction in nausea and vomiting symptoms
• Decrease in the number of people admitted to the hospital before Alere’s NVP program from 65.4 percent to 3.3 percent