Sepsis Watch Cost and benefits analysis

 Benefits of the Sepsis Watch 

In 2017, 48.9 million people where diagnosed with sepsis globally and approximately 11 million people die from it. This is a major issue facing the medical industry. The Sepsis watch has the ability to reduce this death rate. The faster Sepsis is diagnosed and treated the more likely it is that the patient will recover. The key benefit to the sepsis watch is the speed at which its able to detect the the illness when compared to a doctors diagnosis. 

Costs of the sepsis watch 

The exact costs to create the AI are not released however it did take three and a half years to develop the technology so its pretty safe to assume the early stages of this technology were costly. The technology has the potential for some additional costs such as; someone to manage the technology, training programs, and programmers to maintain software code. These are cost;y expenses so it will be important to make sure the technology is marginally beneficial in terms of the cost to the Sepsis Watch when compared to that of having a doctor spending their time diagnosing the patient.   

 Future Implementation of Technology

For the Sepsis Watch to be successfully implemented in the future, there first needs to be more education on how it can be implemented into the workplace. It is a disruptive technology because it has disrupted how sepsis had previously been tracked and treated. Since it is completely new, an accompanying IS will be needed for it to work successfully and coincide with the other technologies found in the workplace. Training programs would need to be implemented and taught so that everyone knows how it can be used effectively. Good management would make sure they fully understand the technology before implementing it instead of blindly installing it into the workplace. There has also been a tablet app that was created to use alongside the Sepsis Watch meaning that healthcare professionals can integrate this new technology into a device that they already use regularly, making it very useful and convenient. Once everything is planned accordingly, trials for safety and effectiveness should be done prior to its full use to ensure the product is a good fit. 

How wide spread can the Sepsis Watch become

 The Market for the Sepsis watch could grow to proportionally to the scale of the disease globally. The sepsis watch will be needed in every hospital across the glob because sepsis is widespread illness effecting a diverse range patient spanning across all age ranges. Countries with more cases per capita will be 'hotspot' markets for adoption. Data suggests that developing nations face higher case counts making them a key geographical area to look for ways to implement the Sepsis Watch.  

• The areas shaded in darker blue are the geographical areas which face higher Sepsis case counts and are the target markets for adoption 

 Warning of Sepsis

Disadvantages

Developing an analytics-driven clinical workflow to fully use the potential of the watch will be difficult. Also, since it is still in clinical trials, it is reported to have given false flags in which the doctors and nurses were unable to determine why the watch flagged them. It will also be difficult to integrate into a workplace since it is a disruptive technology.  

 Advantages 

Early detection and treatment of sepsis is the key to help prevent damages and deaths caused from it. The system is able ot provide warning signs of sepsis with a median time of 5 hours before it occurs. Because of this, Duke has estimated that it can save around 8 lives per hospital per month (although this is a very rough estimate due to the small sample size). To avoid any wrong predictions, the watch is developed to flag warning signs within a 12 hour window before sepsis is predicted to occur. 

 Introduction of the Technology 

The AI was developed for Duke Health Hospital and was created using deep learning on 50,000 patient records and over 32 million data points. The purpose of the watch was to reduce Sepsis deaths as it is one of the leading causes of hospital deaths globally. By monitoring patients hourly, the Sepsis Watch is able to flag any signs of sepsis to detect it early. Because of its unique approach, the Sepsis Watch is considered a disruptive technology in the healthcare industry.