Dr Chris Laing, Consultant Nephrologist at the Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Co-Chair of the Think Kidneys education workstream has been working together with DeepMind Health on the co-development of an innovative mobile application called Streams, to detect cases of acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI is a contributing factor in up to 40,000 deaths in the UK every year, and is attributed to up to 20% of NHS hospital admissions.
When busy doctors and nurses are on the go around hospital wards they don’t always have time to get to a computer to view test results. The Streams app provides test results to clinicians in the palm of their hand, and can help detect cases of deterioration or increased risk of AKI in patients admitted to hospital. In fact, early pilots showed that Streams reduced the time it took for clinicians to view patients’ test results and helped them to make decisions and take action.
“Using Streams meant I was able to review blood test results for patients at risk of AKI within seconds of it becoming available. This system of direct alerts and the ability to prioritise patients was just not possible previously. By using Streams, I intervened earlier and was able to improve the care of over half the patients Streams identified in our pilot studies,” said Dr Laing.
Google Deepmind, a London-based technology firm, is collaborating with frontline clinicians to develop technology to improve patient care. These innovative partnerships “aim to support clinicians by providing the technical expertise needed to build and scale technologies that help them provide the best possible care to their patients.” Find out more about the work at http://deepmind.com/health where you can hear the perspectives of clinicians involved in the pilot.