US-based IT company IBM and Excel Medical Electronics (EME) are collaborating with The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Neurosurgery in a study to test the effectiveness of a real-time alarm, which is designed to predict rising brain pressure in patients with traumatic brain injuries.
The experiments will be conducted using IBM Research and EME-developed software product big data analytics, which examines in real-time streams of vital signs continuously collected from the bedside monitor to spot elusive changes in the patient's pulse, blood and intracranial pressure, heart activity, and respiration, signaling that dangerous high-risk increases in brain pressure are on the way.
UCLA's study aims to address the questions that are usually observed in the patients with traumatic brain injuries, who are under constant surveillance by bedside monitors measuring the patient's vital signs.
UCLA neurointensives will use real-time analysis from thousands of vitals collected and flowing from patients' bedside monitor inside the intensive care unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
The technology aims to provide an advance warning to physicians and nurses of pending changes in the patient's condition, allowing them to take preventive action to keep patients safe from rising brain pressure.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has awarded a $1.2m grant to UCLA's Department of Neurosurgery in order to study intracranial pressure and develop a predictive alarm system.
The department has been examining the effect of rising intracranial pressure on brain trauma patients for the past eight years.
Currently the research is being expanded with the collaboration of IBM and Excel Medical Electronics.
IBM Research chief medical scientist Martin Kohn said the field of big data analytics is evolving to include new kinds of data from sources such as medical monitors, giving the company new ways into patients that weren't previously possible.
"We believe that UCLA's promising research may one day transform the way that doctors and nurses interact with patients inside the neuro-intensive care unit," Kohn added.
