Nurses and Computers Working Together May Be Key for Early Identification of Sepsis

​Synergy between nurses and an automated system could help identify sepsis, according to a February 22, 2018, article on NPR.org. According to the article, a quarter of a million Americans die from sepsis each year and many of those deaths could be averted with early recognition. The article described an automated system that looks for patterns of medical signs, such as high or low temperature, low blood pressure, fast breathing, and high white blood cell count. Sepsis is "a really frustrating disease," according to the medical director of the sepsis program, and no single symptom signals its presence. However, certain patterns could suggest that it is emerging. In the system described in the article, a red box appears on a computer screen listing the presence of the aforementioned symptoms.