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Alert-Grouping: Smart Personalization of Monitoring System Thresholds to Help Healthcare Teams Struggle with Alarm Fatigue in Intensive Care

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Abstract

In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), patients are monitored using various devices that generate alerts when specific metrics, such as heart rate and oxygen saturation, exceed predetermined thresholds. However, these alerts can be inaccurate and lead to alert fatigue, resulting in errors and inaccurate diagnoses. We propose Alert grouping, a “Smart Personalization of Monitoring System Thresholds to Help Healthcare Teams Struggle Alarm Fatigue in Intensive Care” model. The alert grouping looks at patients at the individual and cluster levels, and healthcare-related constraints to assist medical and nursing teams in setting personalized alert thresholds of vital parameters. By simulating the function of ICU patient bed devices, we demonstrate that the proposed alert grouping model effectively reduces the number of alarms overall, improving the alert system’s validity and reducing alarm fatigue. Implementing this personalized alert model in ICUs boosts medical and nursing teams’ confidence in the alert system, leading to better care for ICU patients by significantly reducing alarm fatigue, thereby improving the quality of care for ICU patients.

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Data Availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to institutional intellectual property rules.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Technology Management, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, 5810201, Israel

    Shai Rozenes

  2. Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 6910717, Israel

    Adi Fux

  3. Department of General Intensive Care, Institute of Nutrition Research, Rabin Medical Center, Belinson Hospital, Petach Tikva, 49100, Israel

    Ilya Kagan & Moran Hellerman

  4. Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ilya Kagan & Moran Hellerman

  5. Research Authority, Rabin Medical Center, Belinson Hospital, Petach Tikva, 49100, Israel

    Boaz Tadmor

  6. Department of Digital Medical Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, 5810201, Israel

    Boaz Tadmor & Arriel Benis

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  1. Shai Rozenes
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  2. Adi Fux
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  4. Moran Hellerman
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Adi Fux, Shai Rozenes; Methodology: Shai Rozenes, Adi Fux; Software: Adi Fux, Shai Rozenes; Validation: Ilya Kagan, Moran Hellerman, Arriel Benis, Boaz Tadmor; Formal Analysis: Arriel Benis; Investigation: Shai Rozenes, Adi Fux; Clinical Resources: Ilya Kagan, Moran Hellerman; Data Curation: Ilya Kagan, Moran Hellerman, Boaz Tadmor; Writing – Original Draft Preparation: Adi Fux, Shai Rozenes; Writing – Review & Editing: Arriel Benis, Boaz Tadmor; Visualization: Adi Fux, Shai Rozenes; Supervision: Arriel Benis; Project Administration: Shai Rozenes, Adi Fux.

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Correspondence to Adi Fux or Arriel Benis.

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Rozenes, S., Fux, A., Kagan, I. et al. Alert-Grouping: Smart Personalization of Monitoring System Thresholds to Help Healthcare Teams Struggle with Alarm Fatigue in Intensive Care. J Med Syst 47, 113 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-023-02010-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-023-02010-6

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