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PEPCOR - A Risk Prediction Model for Pediatric Intensive Care Units Utilizing Ventilator Days and Length of Stay

Theruni Pethiyagoda1, Nikhil Chanani2, Chihwen Cheng3

  • 1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.

... IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics. IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics
|February 7, 2017
PubMed

Insights

This study developed the PEPCOR clinical decision support system to reduce costs in pediatric intensive care units. PEPCOR identifies when combining procedures offers no significant health benefits for critically ill children.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric critical care medicine
  • Health informatics
  • Clinical decision support systems

Background:

  • High resource utilization and costs are significant concerns in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units (ICUs).
  • Critically ill children often undergo procedures that may not improve their health outcomes but increase costs.
  • There is a need for tools to personalize care and avoid unnecessary, costly interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and evaluate a clinical decision support system (PEPCOR) for pediatric ICUs.
  • To identify combinations of procedures that do not improve patient outcomes compared to single procedures.
  • To reduce unnecessary resource utilization and associated costs in critical care.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta ICU database.
  • Developed a system to analyze the risk associated with combining two procedures versus administering one.
  • Quantified risk using the ratio of ventilator days to length of stay.

Main Results:

  • 82 out of 90 procedure combinations showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) when compared to stand-alone procedures.
  • A higher risk score indicated that the second procedure did not improve overall patient health.
  • The PEPCOR system can help differentiate beneficial from non-beneficial procedure combinations.

Conclusions:

  • The PEPCOR system effectively identifies procedure combinations that do not improve outcomes in critically ill children.
  • Implementing PEPCOR can lead to more personalized care and reduced healthcare costs in pediatric ICUs.
  • This decision support tool has the potential to optimize resource allocation in critical care settings.

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