A new web app, designed by doctors to help hospitals deal with coronavirus cases, can monitor more than 1,000 Covid-19 patients in Ireland after being developed in just 10 days.
The system, called Acorrd – Assessment of Covid-19 Risk of Respiratory Deterioration – allows patients with Covid-19 to be monitored and reports on who may need to go into intensive care due to breathing difficulties.
Thanks to its effectiveness in helping medical teams determine the medical urgency of patients (so-called triage), continuous monitoring and treatment, Acorrd is spreading to acute hospitals in Ireland.
The system was developed by pneumologists from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland led by Prof. Richard Costello of Beaumont Hospital Dublin and S3 Connected Health with the support of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland.
After obtaining a waiver from the Health Products Regulatory Authority and the Department of Health, Acorrd was initially developed at Beaumont Hospital, which counts the largest cohort of Covid-19 patients in Ireland.
The system is currently used by more than 100 doctors in three other major hospitals in Ireland. Following a review of the clinical benefits by the Health Service Executive, it will be implemented in all hospitals with Covid-19 patients.
“With the rapidly increasing number of cases, we urgently needed to find a solution that would enable our hospital teams to address this crisis by optimizing and downsizing the delivery of acute respiratory care for all affected patients,” explained Dr. Costello. “And with the arrival of additional clinical staff from other departments to strengthen our respiratory care teams, we also needed something that able to provide less experienced doctors with critical knowledge and decision support for patient care.”
Acoord enables clinicians to quickly sort COVID-19 patients according to a COVID Critical Care Index (CCCI) designed specifically for the solution. This scale recommends additional treatment options derived from patient vital signs and oxygen delivery method. This is particularly useful to guide physicians who are not pulmonology specialists to provide the best care for COVID-19 patients.
Digital-health 