Intensive care units are extremely complex environments where clinicians have mere seconds to make critical decisions. Although massive amounts of data are collected for every patient, it’s siloed on each monitoring device. Dr. Emma Fauss and Dr. Craig Rusin worked with critical care teams to create Sickbay, a technology platform that uses data to enable a new standard of healthcare. It collects patient data across ICU equipment to allow flexible remote monitoring at scale. And it applies patient-specific analytics to augment decision making and help care teams intervene faster.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, the need for clinical distancing has never been greater. So, overwhelmed hospitals are using Sickbay to help protect care teams from exposure and scale up intensive care beds and staff.
Serving More Patients Safely
Surging patient numbers are stretching ICUs to their limits, forcing hospitals to expand capacity. Sickbay helps them adapt, offering the foundation to transform any acute care bed into a monitored ICU bed in a matter of minutes. Once ICU beds are connected to the system, Sickbay provides patient history for their entire length of stay. This gives providers access to the data they need to intervene faster, help avoid intubation, and improve management of ventilated patients. And in the face of staff shortages, hospitals can bolster staff capacity by granting providers remote access from any PC, tablet or phone to monitor up to 100 patients on a single screen.
Helping Protect Healthcare Workers
Because COVID-19 is highly contagious, medical workers who are directly exposed to patients are at high risk. Clinical distancing can help protect staff and limit exposure to the virus. Using software running on an open Intel architecture, the Sickbay platform connects providers to patients allowing them to provide remote care. Software-based monitoring visualizes the monitor and ventilator data from any web-enabled device, making it possible to view from the safety of a conference room, office, home, or quarantined area.
Making the Most of Scarce Resources
Overstretched hospitals are able to enlist more help with Sickbay. The American Medical Association estimates that 10,000 retired physicians could reenter practice each year.2 The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department have begun setting up databases of retired medical personnel willing to help. These doctors, new graduates, and remote care providers in other states could use Sickbay to lend a hand remotely, making the most of underutilized talent in areas not heavily impacted by the virus. Given the limited supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), hospitals using Sickbay can also reduce the use of precious hospital supplies — all without compromising the quality of care.
Retired doctors, new graduates, and remote care providers in other states can use Sickbay to lend a hand remotely.
Preparing for the Next Pandemic
COVID-19 has demonstrated how much we all rely on hospitals and care workers. It’s also underscored how quickly they can adapt in times of need. As part of Intel’s $50 million pandemic response, Intel and MIC are launching the Scale to Serve Program to help 100 hospitals rapidly install the Sickbay platform, fund the implementation process and waive the first 90 days of subscription costs. Qualifying hospitals can skip months of procurement work and set up. Once hospitals decide to adopt the platform, it can be deployed in as little as a week to help fight COVID-19.
Sickbay will be the foundation for better care, empowering hospitals to be ready whenever the next pandemic or disaster strikes. Click here to learn more about how MIC’s FDA-cleared Sickbay Platform can help. And to see if you qualify to participate in the Scale to Serve Program, complete the on-line application form.
Serving more patients and helping protect providers is wonderful — and Intel, with partners like MIC, is how wonderful gets done.