Infant Mortality Review Committee holds monthly public meeting, moves to closed session to review deaths

The Department of Public Health’s Infant Mortality Review Committee opened its monthly public meeting and, after brief introductions and procedural business, moved into an executive session to review confidential cases of infant deaths.

Shane Eliphlam, nurse consultant for the Infant Mortality Review Program and a co-chair, opened the meeting and told attendees the panel would switch platforms for confidentiality reasons. "This is a closed discussion to discuss any confidential matters related to infant deaths in Connecticut requiring privacy to deliberate on this issue," he said. He also explained a technology change: "We are not able to run 2 Zoom meetings at the same time, which is why we switched to the Teams link."

The committee conducted roll call and brief introductions from member organizations, including clinicians, state agencies and community representatives. Deanna Nargello, a New Haven pediatrician and co-chair, moved to approve the committee’s November minutes; the motion was seconded and no objection was recorded on the public audio before the meeting proceeded.

Before entering executive session, the chair invited public comment but said there were no members of the public present who wished to speak. Committee members then voted by motion to enter executive session to discuss cases previously circulated to members. Paul Gacek, public health services manager at the Department of Public Health, made the motion for executive session and the chair seconded it.

The committee indicated it would reconvene in public only to adjourn. After the closed deliberation, members reentered the public session and moved to adjourn. The chair confirmed the next meeting is scheduled for February. Clerks and members also briefly discussed the meeting recording and transcription; a member noted the transcription interface indicated the transcript had stopped and they attempted to stop the recording.

The meeting addressed no public or policy actions in open session beyond approving minutes and moving to the closed review. No votes with recorded tallies were taken in public session; executive-session deliberations on specific cases were not described in the public record for confidentiality reasons.