Each year, 5,000 children in North American hospitals experience code-blue incidents; a code blue is an event where patients require immediate resuscitation.
One quarter of these incidents result in death, and Bedside Clinical Systems (BCS) seeks to drastically improve this statistic by launching its flagship solution, Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (BedsidePEWS™).
“BedsidePEWS™ is a unique software solution that helps hospital clinicians to identify deteriorating children early, giving them a window of opportunity to intervene and potentially avoid code blue incidents,” says Rajesh Sharma, CEO of BCS. “It empowers clinicians by giving them the real-time, accurate data they need to make the best care decisions for children.”
Sharma and BCS were featured in a recent edition of Post City news. The company was also profiled by MedCityNews during a recent visit to Philadelphia.
The BedsidePEWS™ visual chart view tracks a patient’s vital signs, allows clinicians to input data and provides an objective score that indicates the severity of a child’s illness. Depending on the score and the rate of change, the BedsidePEWS™ system indicates when clinicians should intervene to ensure that children who are getting progressively ill receive the right level of care from the right person at the right time.
The development of BedsidePEWS™ was supported by The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. “The system was recognized very early by the Foundation to have substantial potential to improve patient care. The Foundation is pleased to have supported the development of this clinical tool and this is a great example of how research funding translates into patient benefits,”says Vincent Bowman, director, Research, Ontario, HSF.
The BedsidePEWS™ system provides tremendous value to tertiary care paeditaric hospitals and to community hospitals to augment available paediatric expertise. BedsidePEWS™ is evidenced-based and easily integrates into existing hospital information systems.
“We are excited to include BedsidePEWS™ on the growing list of groundbreaking scientific and clinical advancements created at SickKids,” says Jim Garner, executive vice-president Corporate Services, SickKids. “We are very proud that through Bedside Clinical Systems we are able to engage in knowledge translation and share our expertise globally—making the benefits of SickKids’ world-class research available to children everywhere.”
Bedside Clinical Systems was created through a partnership between SickKids and MaRS Innovation (MI). BCS has received business development support and financial investment from MaRS Innovation, and won a competitive grant from Ontario Centres of Excellence. BCS is supported by SickKids through the Industry Partnerships and Commercialization department, which connects SickKids research and innovations with industry partners.
“Launching BCS with SickKids presented MaRS Innovation with a unique opportunity to commercialize world-leading expertise in clinical decision support focusing on children,” says Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MI. “The BedsidePEWS™ system is the only scientifically-validated early-warning system available within the healthcare space and has the potential for significant global market impact.”
In addition to developing the electronic version of Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System, BCS will act as a commercialization vehicle for other decision-support systems that originate at SickKids.