Dive Brief:
- Healthcare professionals struggle to keep up with the high volume of data being generated by multiple devices in the ICU.
- A group of doctors cutting across the country are trying to reduce ICU data overload, using computer hardware and software to organize device readings into a single coherent picture.
- The idea behind the project isn't just to organize the flood of information being generated by these devices, but ultimately, to predict the emergence of conditions that lead to strokes or heart attacks.
Dive Insight:
Alarm fatigue is already a significant problem throughout hospitals, not just in the ICU. Doctors and nurses simply can't pay attention to every sound made by the multiplicity of devices monitoring patients, a problem that can lead to medical errors. But if clinicians can build a system -- which they have, in a few hospitals -- offering a focused view of the various sources of data in the ICU, they're likely to see positive clinical results. This is a project worth watching.