Later Career
In 1958, Caldeyro-Barcia and Alvarez developed a method to measure the effect of uterine contractions on fetal heart rate, which would later become the basis of fetal monitoring, commonly used to monitor the fetus's response to contractions during labor and to prevent any neurological damage resulting from oxygen deprivation. They defined normal and abnormal responses of the fetus through the continuous monitoring of fetal heart rate. The pair referred to the typical abnormal response of the fetal heart rate during labor as "type II DIP"; the term was later changed to late deceleration by other researchers.
Caldeyro-Barcia and his staff developed sub partu tocolysis in 1969. This ability to suppress premature labor may overcome around 70 percent of sub partu complications, avoiding unnecessary surgery.
In 1970, the Pan American Health Organization created the first Latin American Center of Perinatology (CLAP) in Montevideo, appointing Caldeyro-Barcia as its director. This became a training and reference center for professionals from Latin America and elsewhere. It provided training to doctors from Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Spain, as well as a vast number of Latin Americans, many of whom are today faculty members in their countries of origin.
Together with Edward Hon, Stanley James, and Erich Saling, Caldeyro-Barcia was a founding editor of the Journal of Perinatal Medicine. The four founded the journal in 1973. Caldeyro-Barcia remained an editor of the journal until his death.
From 1976 to 1979, Caldeyro-Barcia was the president of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). He was President of the organization's 1979 World Congress in Moscow.
The World Association of Perinatal Medicine, the first world congress of this speciality, was founded in Tokyo in 1991 by a number of renowned scientists including Caldeyro-Barcia and Saling. Caldeyro-Barcia chaired the general assembly held immediately after the congress concluded, during which the international body's name was established.
After Caldeyro-Barcia retired from the chair in Gynaecology at the University of the Republic, which was created for him, the government of Uruguay appointed him to direct a program that developed basic sciences at the University: Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA, "Program for the Development of Basic Sciences"). He held the post from 1984 until his death.
Read more about this topic: Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia
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