La Jolla’s Scripps Translational Science Institute will lead a group of four partners to develop a program to test advanced analytics technology in an attempt to improve health outcomes for Ebola patients, increase the safety of health care workers and reduce risk of spreading the virus to others.
The program was nominated for a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Joining Scripps are wireless vital signs monitor developer Sotera Wireless, Inc., wireless health sensor developer Rhythm Diagnostic Systems and personalized predictive analytics technology company PhysIQ. The program is dubbed STAMP2, short for Sensor Technology and Analytics to Monitor, Predict and Protect Ebola Patients. STAMP2 will test the effectiveness of the technology to analyze multiple vital signs of patients either suspected or confirmed to be infected with the Ebola virus.
The existing approach for monitoring patients detects the infection only after a patient has become contagious and the virus has the opportunity to spread. For patients confirmed to be infected, changes in health status can be missed in vital sign checks. In both cases, continuous monitoring of multiple vital signs, coupled with personalized data analytics, can lead to much earlier warning and, with it, earlier intervention.
Patient data will be collected using two wireless monitors that will continuously read and transmit multiple vital signs. By incorporating the ViSi Mobile System from Sotera Wireless and a Band Aid-type sensor – the MultiSense device, from Rhythm Diagnostic Systems – patients will be able to be monitored at all times so that changes in their condition can be recognized sooner and without needless exposure to health care workers.
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a nonprofit integrated health system that treats 500,000 patients annually through 2,600 affiliated physicians and 13,750 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, hospice and home health care services and an ambulatory care network of physician offices and 25 outpatient centers and clinics.