Vanderbilt doctors Jason Martin, left, Michael Hooper and Lisa Weavind are testing the new sepsis detection system in the ICU. When the system determines that a patient may have developed sepsis, a red light flashes in the electronic dashboard that displays patient information on ICU workstations. Photo by Steve Green, VanderbiltUniversity
When Jason Martin gives a talk about his research, he begins with the dramatic story of Mariana Bridi da Costa: The young Brazilian supermodel died from severe sepsis in January after amputation of both her hands and feet failed to stop its spread.
Martin, who is a fellow in allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine, is part of an interdisciplinary team at Vanderbilt University that has come up with a high-tech approach to combat this deadly illness, which is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States and kills more than half a million people worldwide every year.
The team is made up of clinicians and informatics experts from the VanderbiltUniversityMedicalCenter and computer scientists from Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS). They have developed and begun testing what they believe is the first real-time system for sepsis detection. In May, the system was deployed in the hospital’s intensive care unit to test its effectiveness. This summer, they will add an automated decision support system designed to guide attending physicians through the complex process of sepsis treatment.