Philips Shares Data About 100,000 ICU Patients

Philips, a LeadingAge Silver Partner and CAST Supporter, is teaming up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a CAST University Member, to give health care researchers access to one of the largest sources of data on critical care.

Philips will be providing MIT access to data from more than 100,000 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. The company has collected and de-identified the data through the Philips Hospital to Home eICU telehealth program.

The Philips data set includes information about patient stays in about 10% of all ICU beds in the United States. It includes information about patient:

• Vital signs.
• Pharmacy medication orders.
• Laboratory results.
• Diagnoses and severity of illness scores.

Data and Education for Researchers

The Laboratory of Computational Physiology within MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science will serve as the research hub for the data set, which is managed by the Philips eICU Research Institute. The MIT lab will also help educate researchers about the data set and offer a platform for collaboration.

Researchers will be able to use the database to "start looking at … questions that need to be answered about what type of interventions and practices … are benefiting patients,” Philips Healthcare Researcher Omar Badawi told Healthcare IT News.

Moving Beyond Insurance Claims

Researchers interested in accessing inpatient data sets currently must rely on insurance claims data that offer only a summary of a patient’s stay, according to HIT Consultant. The Philips data set will provide a more comprehensive look at the ICU patient’s journey, according to Leo Anthony Celi of MIT.

"The quality and resolution of the data Philips has been collecting in the critical care domain is unprecedented,” says Celi. “This kind of access will provide researchers with data that will enable investigations otherwise unimaginable."

The data set will be available before the end of 2015 on the PhysioNet website. In addition to reviewing the data, investigators will be able to use the website to share their methodologies and findings with the larger research community.

“This initiative will make it easier for researchers to share methods and findings, bypassing the need to reinvent the wheel with each new research project," said Derek Smith, senior vice president of Hospital to Home at Philips Healthcare. "We hope this will lead to better, faster breakthroughs—and, ultimately, better medicine."