Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
With a shared interest in providing better patient care, Dr. McGregor and Dr. James partnered
to find a way to make better use of the information produced by monitoring devices. Dr. McGregor
visited researchers at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center's Industry Solutions Lab (ISL), who were
extending a new stream-computing platform to support healthcare analytics.
Smarter healthcare
●
Instrumented
—using streaming data to help clinicians spot infections. Instrumented patient's
vital-sign data is captured by bedside monitoring devices up to 1,000 times per second.
●
Interconnected
—monitoring device data and integrated clinician knowledge are brought together
in real time for an automated analysis using a sophisticated, streamlined computing platform.
●
Intelligent—
detecting medically significant events even before patients exhibit symptoms will
enable proactive treatment before the condition worsens, eventually increasing the success rate
and potentially saving lives.
Solution components
Software: IBMInfoSphere™ Streams and IBMDB2
®
Research: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
A three-way collaboration was established, with each group bringing a unique perspective: the
hospital's focus on patient care, the university's ideas for using the data stream, and IBM providing
the advanced analysis software and information technology expertise needed to turn this vision into
reality. The result was Project Artemis, part of IBM's First-of-a-Kind program, which pairs IBM's
scientists with clients to explore how emerging technologies can solve real-world business problems.
Project Artemis is a highly flexible platform that aims to help physicians make better, faster deci-
sions regarding patient care for a wide range of conditions. The earliest iteration of the project is
focused on early detection of nosocomial infection by watching for reduced heart rate variability
along with other indications. For safety reasons, in this development phase the information is being
collected in parallel with established clinical practice and is not being made available to clinicians.
The early indications of its efficacy are very promising.
Project Artemis is based on IBMInfoSphere Streams, a new information processing architecture
that enables near-real-time decision support through the continuous analysis of streaming data using
sophisticated, targeted algorithms. The IBMDB2
®
relational database provides the data management
required to support future retrospective analyses of the collected data.
Project Artemis was a consequence of the unique and collaborative relationship between SickKids,
UOIT, and IBM. “To gain its support, we needed to do our homework very carefully and show that all the
bases were covered. The hospital was cautious, but from the beginning we had its full support to proceed,”
says Dr. Andrew James, staff neonatologist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. Even
with the support of the hospital, there were challenges to be overcome. Because Project Artemis is more
about information technology than about traditional clinical research, new issues had to be considered.
For example, the hospital CIO became involved because the system had to be integrated into the exist-
ing network without any impact. Regulatory and ethical concerns are part of any research at SickKids,
and there were unique considerations here in terms of the protection and security of the data. The research
team's goal was to exceed provincial and federal requirements for the privacy and security of personal
