Hospitals utilize cloud computing technique to overcome infectious diseases

Contributors have volumes of data in EHRs, but struggle with how to bring that data to bear to make better the patient care.

Drawing in ever-changing patient data, and knowing what measures to take as a result, is crucial when addressing with conditions such as sepsis and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which need careful and timely treatment.

Getting real-time decision support in these conditions, tailored to individual sufferers, is what VigiLanz Corp. does. Its enterprise Software as a Service access is merely an instance of how contributors may be capable to call on third parties to layer services on top of existing clinical systems to derive profits.

VigiLanz’s services are a part of what is called enterprise intelligence resources, claims Tim Morim, the company’s vice president of business development and marketing. The service fills the space that exists between accumulating the data and being capable to do something with it to intervene in patient care.

“We have constructed a platform that sits on top of electronic healthcare information,” claims Adam Klass, its chief technology officer.

VigiLanz takes in electronic information in real time from more than 400 hospital customers. It aggregates disparate transactional workflow and documentation data from the hospitals’ EMRs, and then observes it in real time. Doing so enables VigiLanz to recognize clinical problems and enable agencies to react quickly.

The company has established a rules engine that enables hospitals to individualize their reactions to patient conditions as they are identified.

2 physicians initiated the company in the year 2001 by 2 physicians who needed to utilize data to eradicate patient risk from adverse drug events, medication mistakes, hospital associated infections, sepsis and other clinical conditions.

“As latest data feeds come in from EMRs, it can identify new viruses and bugs before they spread throughout the hospital and our rules engine can adapt on the fly,” Klass claims. “The rules engine can check and offer guidance for the right action around any type of clinical data that is coming in.”

Sepsis is merely one instance of a condition that can be monitored in real time, and standardized interventions can be began as quickly as possible to secure patients from dire consequences that result when interventions are postponed or delayed.

VigiLanz can monitor “thousands of scenarios” for its client contributors, Klass claims, and incoming information can set off rules; for instance, 1 of its clients has 1,500 rules running in real time, and the rules can be altered.

“Any query you can formulate around any source of data that is flowing in can be set up as a rule,” Klass states. “It can be something like, ‘If that situation happens, I need to see this type of guidance in this period of time.’ Maybe it might be 5 factors to be in place before a rule kicks in.

“Some rules are quite standard around hospitals, while others may be custom events,” Klass adds. “For certain rules, there may be fifteen various factors considered, and for the rule to kick in, entire fifteen have to be in place.”

VigiLanze also touts its capability to form communities among its customers, and participants can share rules and knowledge that give benefits to other members. For instance, 1 community supports children’s hospitals, Klass claims.

To better combat sepsis, data from entire client hospitals is stored in a data warehouse, and VigiLanz is conducting predictive modeling on that information. That will enable VigiLanz to advise contributors on the best ways to assess incoming sufferers for sepsis, score them for susceptibility and place sufferers into care plans that provide agencies the best chance to stop the worsening of the disease.

With MERS, VigiLanz’a real-time clinical surveillance and quality services have been configured to assist contributors to recognize possible cases and begin treatment protocols as soon as possible. VigiLanz also is capable to assist contributors to automate required reporting of infections to the National Health Safety Network, Klass claims.