Early detection of deteriorating patients

A major focus of our research is improving recognition and outcomes for patients whose condition deteriorates in hospital.

Late recognition and treatment of deterioration occurs in 5% of patients admitted to NHS hospital, resulting in avoidable harm, including death. Over 60,000 patients each year deteriorate unexpectedly on wards to the extent they need to be transferred to an intensive care unit (ICU). In maternity, severe avoidable morbidity affects 8,700 UK women giving birth annually, disproportionately affecting particular ethnic and deprived groups.

Our work focusses on developing novel patient monitoring systems and state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to detect deterioration early, enabling prompt remedial treatment to improve patient outcomes.

Our research is delivered into clinical practice, with our System for Electronic Notes Documentation (SEND), a user-optimised digital system for charting vital-signs (e.g., breathing rate, pulse) observations used in eight hospitals and our work in maternal early warning underpinning the new NHS England/Improvement National Maternal Early Warning Score . Our review of early warning score development was the subject of a National Institute for Health and Care Research alert.