Glasgow pilots brain injuries study

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has received government funding for a pilot study using data modelling to improve the early management of traumatic brain injuries.

The Scottish health board has received funding from Innovate UK – formerly the Technology Strategy Board – for the two-year project in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, health informatics company Aridhia, and Philips Medical Systems.

The project’s focus is on making use of the high-frequency data that can be collected from bedside monitoring equipment in traumatic brain injury units.

The project will use Aridhia’s AnalytiXagility data safe haven and data science platform to securely store and analyse high frequency, anonymised data collected from patients through bedside monitoring systems in the neurointensive care unit at the Southern General Hospital.

Dr Laura Moss, the project lead at Greater Glasgow and Clyde, told EHI the purpose of the project is to move research-based care models “from bench to bedside” to see if they can be used to improve care in a clinical environment.

Moss said the monitoring equipment in traumatic brain injury units continuously generate “huge volumes of data” compared to other clinical areas, which could be used for research and clinical purposes.

“The challenge here is that we in the NHS are very good at collecting data, but we’re not very good at analysing that data.”

Data from the vital signs monitors, drug pumps and ventilators will go into the hospital’s patient management system, before being anonymised at source and transferred to the Aridhia data safe haven for study.

Moss said the study will test a range of models, such as how to quantify the impact of hypertension and measure the auto-regulation of blood flow to the brain, to see whether they can help clinicians to adjust a patient’s care plan.

The project will also develop an app for clinicians to use at the bedside, allowing them to select clinical analysis algorithms to inform the best course of care for the patient.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s department of clinical physics and bioengineering will provide expertise in managing and analysing the data collected from the patient monitoring equipment, and will also assist with the clinical studies conducted as part of the system evaluation.

Clinicians from the University of Glasgow, led by Professor John Kinsella, will provide expertise in anaesthesia, pain and critical care and the design of the study.

David Sibbald, Aridhia’s chief executive, said the project may provide a new treatment option for victims of traumatic brain injury compared to the limited therapies currently available.

Moss said the project is expected to start in the second quarter of 2015, with final paperwork for the study currently being completed.