SBIR Phase II: A Clinical Decision Support System for Fluid Resuscitation of Intensive Care Unit Patients

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project involves addressing complexities in fluid management, one of the most important issues in critical care. Suboptimal fluid management results in many complications such as pulmonary edema. Studies show that fluid overload is associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality. Recent studies also show that restrictive fluid resuscitation protocols result in a reduction of mechanical ventilation days and hospital length of stay. The clinical literature provides ample evidence of optimized fluid therapy benefits for different patient populations including those with sepsis and post-operative patients. However, implementation of fluid therapy is highly subjective. Specifically, the most critical unanswered questions involve the timing and the volume of fluid infusions. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project proposes to develop a system which uses continuous measurements from a standard intensive care unit hemodynamic monitoring device to provide actionable feedback for clinicians to optimize fluid and vasoactive drug management. In the proposed Phase II work, we will further develop the clinical decision support system developed in Phase I. This includes further development of the underlying technology and also performing preliminary clinical studies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.