King’s College Hospital, King’s College London and Ensono Digital have developed a prototype app that aims to help paramedics and clinicians effectively triage patients who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting.
The prototype application assesses the risk of brain damage following a cardiac arrest. It uses a neurological risk score from an algorithm known as MIRACLE2, which is calculated from patient data. Healthcare professionals can then use this information to personalise treatment for the patient.
Ensono Digital, the cloud consulting and managed services business unit of Ensono, worked with clinicians from King’s College Hospital and King’s College London to develop the app over three days during a Microsoft Hackathon.
The app builds on the work of Dr Nilesh Pareek, consultant interventional cardiologist at King’s College Hospital, whose programme of research resulted in the MIRACLE2 algorithm.
He said: “For a long time, I have been concerned about the poor outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In that critical first 72 hours after an incident, care currently looks very similar for most patients, potentially missing the chance for vital investigations into the wider impacts of cardiac arrests on the human body.
“That is why this app, and its ability to personalise care for patients, is so exciting. It is there to potentially support the decision-making of every healthcare professional, from the paramedics who first treat a cardiac arrest patient to the clinicians who receive them at the hospital.”
Although the app remains in development and is not currently available for clinical use, the aim is to eventually make the MIRACLE2 algorithm accessible and useable for clinicians via the app.
Patient data would be inputted into the app, such as age, ECG scores and heart rhythm. The algorithm would then use this information to calculate the risk score for a poor neurological outcome.
Pareek continued: “Care in the future might be shaped to the patient’s needs: someone with a high risk of a poor neurological outcome, for example, might be treated with targeted and rapid intervention to reduce damage to the brain.
“Of course, there is more value we can add to the application, but we’re now one step closer to realising how this initiative can deliver better patient outcomes for the UK healthcare system.”
The continuing development of the app will see it circulated with cardiologists at King’s College Hospital to gain user feedback.
Steve Jones, engagement director at Ensono Digital, said: “Over the three days, we worked with Dr Pareek to move this from an idea to a tangible app – working alongside cardiologists, predictive modellers and statisticians to produce real world results.
“We look forward to deepening this collaboration as we continue to develop the application and create a solution that has the potential to transform the delivery of care for cardiac arrest patients.”
Digital interventions and initiatives are very much on King’s College Hospital’s radar. Its yearly action plan, published mid last year, includes a focus on being digitally-enabled to support high quality care.