The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) has entered a partnership with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Playtime Solutions to support a project that aims to introduce an early warning system for intensive care units (ICUs).
The Australian Government allocated A$1.5m ($1.02m) in funding to support this initiative under the National Clinical Quality Registry Program.
QUT highlighted that the project's goal is to proactively identify ICUs at risk of higher-than-expected mortality rates, enabling timely interventions.
The project will allow researchers from QUT's Centre for Data Science (CDS) to work in collaboration with the ANZICS Registry team to examine a wide range of factors influencing ICU outcomes and develop predictive models.
According to QUT School of Computer Science and CDS professor David Lovell, ANZICS, for the past 30 years, has diligently collected and analysed data on ICU admissions to uphold high standards of care in ICUs.
Lovell added: “Our goal is to take this historical information and use forecasting models to turn that data into useful insights and an advanced warning system for ICU teams.”
Dr Edgar Santos-Fernandez, a senior research fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences, has played a key role in developing statistical modelling techniques to identify trends and anomalies in Australian river systems.
QUT stated that these methods will serve as a foundation for the ICU Forecast Project.
With over 200,000 patients admitted to ICUs annually across Australia and New Zealand, the project is crucial for maintaining quality care, QUT noted.
The models created by QUT will then be integrated into ICU operations through a partnership with Playtime Solutions, which will incorporate the forecast models into ANZICS' information systems.
The latest ICU Forecast project represents significant progress in healthcare analytics, aiming to enhance patient outcomes by leveraging data science and technology.
This collaboration brings together expertise from academia, healthcare, and technology sectors to improve critical care services.
ANZICS Registry Critical Care Resources Registry director and Fiona Stanley Hospital Intensive care specialist professor Ed Litton said: “ICU Forecast is an evolution in approach to ICU safety and quality.
"It allows us to move from using data in a reactive to a proactive framework, using new tools to give bedside clinicians the information they need to drive care improvements.”
