Early detection of sepsis could save thousands

An Oxfordshire-based company is extending its CE-marked end-to-end wireless patient surveillance system, the Patient Status Engine (PSE), to provide warning notifications of sepsis in patients at home within the 72-hour critical period.

This week experts warned that thousands of patients are still needlessly dying from sepsis despite calls to improve care. Around 100,000 people are admitted to hospital with the condition every year in the UK, which kills 37,000 annually.

Now, in a bid to save lives and cut costs in the NHS, Isansys Lifecare is repurposing and extending the PSE to help a number of hospitals and healthcare service providers monitor 20,000 at-risk chemotherapy patients. Isansys estimates this solution would prevent a large number of deaths and achieve a saving of £70m a year for the NHS.

This is a fantastic project to be working on and was one which was inspired by requests from UK clinicians and nurses who have identified opportunities to extend the applications of the PSE and realise new methods for aiding discovery and treatment

Keith Errey, chief executive and founder of Isansys, said: “Sepsis is a more-common reason for hospital admission than heart attack and has a higher mortality rate. Patients who have undergone chemotherapy face a difficult and anxious few weeks at home immediately following their treatment, many of whom could unknowingly deteriorate with sepsis. By reconfiguring our PSE we expect to enable the detection of sepsis much earlier within the 72-hour critical period, facilitating easier, cheaper and less-traumatic intervention.

“The PSE allows the patients’ care teams to have remote 24/7 access to their vital sign data and early warning indicators, and will also provide a communication channel to patients for real-time feedback and support.

“This virtual ‘comfort blanket’ will bring peace of mind and allow patients to more confidently engage in their recovery and rehabilitation programmes.”

Isansys won two national Small Business Research Initiative healthcare contracts in April this year. Granted as part of NHS England’s initiative to enhance the adoption of innovative devices and new technologies, Isansys is now working to repurpose and expand the functionality of its PSE in two themed areas – patient safety and cancer. The project falls under the theme Improving Diagnosis and Treatment Management of Cancer, which aims to save 5,000 lives by 2014/15.

Rebecca Weir, co-founder and development director of Isansys, said: “We have already made a great deal of progress with this crucial project and are extremely pleased with the outcomes so far.

This virtual ‘comfort blanket’ will bring peace of mind and allow patients to more confidently engage in their recovery and rehabilitation programmes

“This is a fantastic project to be working on and was one which was inspired by requests from UK clinicians and nurses who have identified opportunities to extend the applications of the PSE and realise new methods for aiding discovery and treatment.”

The PSE is a ground-breaking cloud-based patient digitisation and analytic solution that continuously measures patient vital sign data delivering this in real time to clinicians for prediction of patient deterioration in different clinical settings. It incorporates several wireless vital sign sensors including the Isansys Lifetouch cardiac monitor – a lightweight, unobtrusive cardiac smart patch which collects data directly from the patient and analyses the ECG to provide heart rate, respiration rate, real-time heart rate variability and ECG visualisation. When its reconfiguration is complete, Isansys’ PSE and Lifetouch will allow healthcare providers to continue 24/7 surveillance of patients, even after they have been discharged from hospital.