Dr. David A. Clifton, College Lecturer Institute of Biomedical Engineering University of Oxford
I have a neural network processor.
23,000 preventable cardiac arrests occur every year in UK hospitals 20,000 readmissions into ICU every year – mortality 50% The majority of these occur because physiological deterioration goes undetected – why?
Level 3:ICU1 : 1 Level 2: Step-down1 : 4 Level 1: Acute wards1 : 4 Level 0: General wards1 : 10 Level -1: Home1 : ? Patient monitors generate very high numbers of false alerts (e.g. 86% of alerts)
Existing methods apply simple thresholds to each parameter Intolerant to transient noise Possibly not the appropriate domain (time, frequency) Where do we set these thresholds in a principled, reliable manner? Nurses & junior doctors trained to ignore alarms Rolls-Royce has deactivated conventional automated methods
EEG / GCS Heart rate Breathing rate SpO2 Blood pressure Temperature
Obvious tachycardia Obvious tachypnea Obvious desaturations Obvious hypotension Obviously unconscious Abnormalities were detected by clinicians, patient escalated. Note the difficulties: Incomplete data Noisy data Varying sample rates
Gradual deterioration Is this patient getting worse? Should we make a call to emergency teams? Patient unescalated, died soon after.
How can we detect abnormality in patient biomedical signals? How can we do it in a reliable way? What are the pitfalls that we have to avoid? How can we evaluate it?
Plenty more to look forward to: machine learning in biomedical engineering
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