The IIC launches BIAlert Sepsis at Tecnosepsis 2024

BHH member Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento (IIC) had the opportunity to present its intelligent sepsis alert system at Tecnosepsis, te most important event of technology applied to the early diagnosis and treatment of this time-dependent process, organised by the Sepsis Code Foundation.

Elisa Martín, director of Health Predictive Analytics at the IIC, moderated a round table that brought together several experiences of Spanish hospitals that have already tested and implemented this medical decision support tool. Speakers from Hospital Universitario Son Llàtzer (Palma de Mallorca), Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (Madrid) and Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete represented different parts of the process of integrating artificial intelligence into clinical practice.

One of them was Marcio Borges, also the president of Código Sepsis and organiser of the event. "Technology and innovation are causing a paradigm shift. BIAlert Sepsis, which we have already validated as working, allows us to detect patients with sepsis much earlier, and that means saving lives", he explained.

Applying artificial intelligence in healthcare

For Elisa Martín, the main conclusion of Tecnosepsis is that we have to anticipate sepsis. "That is precisely what BIAlert Sepsis is capable of, identifying whether or not a patient is likely to develop sepsis in the next 24 hours. We are at the heart of the need", she said.

BIAlert Sepsis is the result of a research project at Son Llàtzer Hospital in Palma de Mallorca, where, after two years in operation and in prospective validation, they have already achieved early diagnosis and reduced false positives of sepsis, which is another of its advantages. After a retrospective analysis of real medical data and the development of a Machine Learning model, the tool is now a reality in this hospital. For Marcio Borges, coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Sepsis Unit, the next step is to validate it in other centres, adapting it to different services and patients.

The Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid has been using BIAlert Sepsis for a few months now, after the integration of data from different information systems of the centre. According to Jaime Cruz, head of digital transformation in the medical area, they are currently validating the alerts generated for their emergency service and working on the training of professionals, to demonstrate that it is indeed a medical decision support tool that is integrated into their routine practice.

Finally, in the Albacete University Hospital Complex, where they already applied the Sepsis Code protocols, they are at the beginning of the road. José Javier Blanch, a specialist in the Infectious Diseases Unit, explained that, after being approved by the hospital's Ethics Committee, they are working on the administrative tasks to implement BIAlert Sepsis. "With this tool we are going to be more efficient, we are going to be able to make an earlier diagnosis, because it will give us that alert", he said.

These experiences and tests of BIAlert Sepsis will also be used to support the CE marking, a certification that will endorse it as a medical device. The IIC is currently working on this and will have to continue to renew it, which they hope will also serve to revalidate the value of a system that can predict sepsis in near real time in the hospital.