MIT, Philips initiative connects researchers with critical care data

A new initiative unveiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Royal Philips will allow healthcare researchers to access data from critical care patients.

Under the partnership, researchers from MIT’s Laboratory of Computational Physiology will gain access to data from more than 100,000 patients that have been collected and anonymized through the Philips Hospital to Home eICU telehealth program. MIT also will help educate researchers on the database and offer a platform for collaboration, according to a press release.

Most inpatient multi-center datasets available to researchers today are limited to insurance claims data, which offers just a summary of a patient’s stay. The datasets from patient stays in eICU centers represent approximately 10 percent of all adult ICU beds in the U.S., and include clinical data such as vital signs, pharmacy medication orders, laboratory results, diagnoses and severity of illness scores.

The data also will be available to researchers via PhysioNet before the end of the year. PhysioNet offers free web access to large collections of physiologic signals and related open-source software.

“Researchers are always looking for better, more accurate and comprehensive data that enables a holistic representation of the patient experience,” said Leo Anthony Celi of MIT. “The quality and resolution of the data Philips has been collecting in the critical care domain is unprecedented. This kind of access will provide researchers with data that will enable investigations otherwise unimaginable.”