Determining the optimal moment to discharge a patient from intensive care (IC) is a complicated decision for intensivists. Pacmed has developed software that supports intensivists in making this complex decision: Pacmed Critical. Based on thousands of characteristics of the admission and patient, Pacmed Critical offers the intensivist a clear overview of all information necessary to reach the right decision. ‘Based on data from the past, the algorithm shows the chance that a discharged patient would be readmitted within a week or would come to pass away. In this way, we are increasing the quality and effectiveness of healthcare,’ states Willem Herter, director of Pacmed. Pacmed Critical was developed in coöperation with the Amsterdam UMC. Choosing the IC was deliberate. Indeed, the algorithm requires enough data of sufficient quality to train itself. ‘We think it’s very important that the algorithm actually answers specific and urgent issues in practice,’ says Herter. For that reason, much consulting took place with intensivists, to find out where the biggest added value of a predictive model was in practice. From this the complex, routine decision of whether or not to discharge patients from the IC emerged as a suitable case.
