Decision Support Systems for Real-Time Monitoring of Hospital Patients – Automated implementation of the National Early Warning Score II – a preclinical study

National Early Warning Score (NEWS) is a screening tool for identifying potential deteriorating patients by measuring their vital signs. The vital sign values are converted to a score, which is used to determine further clinical management. When used correctly, NEWS has been shown to decrease both the morbidity and mortality of patients. The screening process can be compromised by incorrect vital sign measurements or measurements at inappropriate time intervals, and sometimes, in a busy clinical setting, the measurements might even be forgotten. In this project, we present our automated NEWS computer system, digiNEWS, that can be used to improve patient monitoring. We explore various ways of measuring and displaying NEWS information about patients in various clinical settings. Our system can automatically collect and store vital signs data and display it in an intuitive way. It can generate warnings based on high NEWS values and remind the medical personnel when it is time to take new measurements. In this study, we also review related works in the field of automated early warning systems and identify potential areas for further enhancement of our system. digiNEWS was tested in a preclinical setting and has shown potential to be used in a clinical environment. We believe that our system can successfully enforce NEWS in a clinical setting by aiding the medical personnel with vital signs measurements, by providing an intuitively presented overview of the patient’s status, and by alerting medical personnel when the patient’s treatment has to be intensified