IBM, AirStrip Partner To Develop Patient Analytics Solution
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The partnership will provide mobile monitoring and early patient warning technology with real-time analytics.
Airstrip and IBM have announced they will be working together to create a mobile monitoring solution that uses patient analytics to help predict declining health in acute and critically ill patients, according to a press release.
MedCity News further reports the University of Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC) will contribute to the project, which will create a mobile acute care early warnings system combining data from electronic health records (EHRs), body sensors, and other sources to predict possible negative outcomes. IBM will provide the streaming analytics to support AirStrip’s mobile platform.
If successful, the new tool has the potential to go beyond critical care and toward stemming hospital readmission rates. IT could also be applied to patients being monitored both inside and outside the hospital to detect clinical deterioration from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, congestive heart failure, or other chronic diseases.
“By mining multiple data streams, looking at real-time analytics and applying our adaptive learning algorithms, we believe we can come up with new computed vital signs that are even more valuable than the signals we’re monitoring today,” Dr. Kevin Ward, executive director and professor of emergency medicine at Michigan, said in the release. “Ultimately, we believe that clinical decision support solutions coupled with our analytic methodologies could help us improve patient outcomes while reducing overall costs in the healthcare system.”
MCIRCC will develop the advanced analytics used in the new system and test its ability to identify and predict a serious and unexpected complication called hemodynamic decompensation, which is among the leading causes of death for critically ill or injured patients. According to MCIRCC researchers, the resulting solution has the potential to enable clinicians to identify patient risk factors for early intervention, which studies have proven can enhance critical care delivery, improve patient outcomes, and reduce ICU admissions.
“Predictive analytics have the potential to provide clinicians the ability to see and take action on much more of the potentially available data on their patients, and course-correct sooner when a complication presents,” Sean Hogan, vice president and general manager of IBM Healthcare said in the release.
“With its ability to assimilate vast amounts of data and provide real time analytics, IBM effectively complements AirStrip’s established leadership position in mobile interoperability,” said Alan Portela, CEO of AirStrip. “Our products hold the promise of measurably improving the clinical, operational and financial bottom lines in healthcare, delivering innovation that can measurably strengthen patient care while addressing real-world challenges faced by providers.”
The creators have been exhibiting it at conferences recently, including the TED@IBM in San Francisco and Health2.0 in San Diego, according to Politico.