HJBR Jan/Feb 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2024 29 triage, physicians have another opportunity to order the test as other labs come back raising the suspicion for something more concerning. This method captures 15-20% of our patient population being tested for sepsis. Testing every patient that presents to the emergency department would create unnecessary cost with little added benefit. improvement teams be responsible and lead implementation. From a patient perspective, we learned that Baton Rouge is an ideal location to do high-level research given the diverse patient population and the spirit of curiosity embedded in our community. Finally, the collaboration put an accelerant to our focus on sepsis. It highlighted the challenges in recognition and the need to identify an abnormal immune response over simply infections. Is the IntelliSep diagnostic test 100% accurate? Will it be accurate if the patient is on antibiotics? O’Neal Virtually no diagnostic test is 100% accurate, and IntelliSep is no different in this case. For one thing, as we mentioned earlier, the definition of sepsis has evolved over time, and we expect that it will continue to, so the diagnosis will be a bit of a moving target. Like most diagnostic tests, IntelliSep is meant to serve as an aid to diagnosing the disease — doctors should take the IntelliSep results and interpret them in the setting of each individual patient. This is no different than any diagnostic test, including EKG’s and chest X-rays, as they are all dependent on the context of the patient. IntelliSep works by measuring the state of activation of the immune system, not by determining the presence or absence of an infection. If the patient is on antibiotics but they are still having an abnormal immune response, IntelliSep will detect it. We found this to be true in our previous studies as many patients are already on antibiotics when they come to the emergency department. Of course, as we also mentioned above, treating sepsis requires treating the underlying infection. If the patient has been on appropriate therapy and their immune system is responding, as the host response improves to normal, IntelliSep should return to normal as well. We suspect this to occur over a period of several days. We just completed a study at both Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to answer this specific question, but the results are just in and we haven’t had time to complete the analysis and submit them for peer review yet. It is on our “to do” list for the near future! What do you wish the public to know about sepsis? Thomas I think the public needs to understand that of all the life-altering diseases, sepsis is the one most likely to impact you or your loved ones. We have large awareness campaigns on cancer and heart disease, which are critical to health. However, sepsis is the No. 1 reason for admission to a hospital worldwide. Changes in mental status such as confusion, low blood pressure, and progressing symptoms in the setting of an infection need to be evaluated by a clinician. How can we help healthcare providers better understand and respond to the risks of sepsis? Thomas We believe that the most recent definition changes to sepsis were a giant leap forward to helping providers focus on the abnormal immune response in setting of an infection rather than the infections themselves. As the discussion in medical schools, nursing schools, graduate medication education, and others adapt, the potential recognition of sepsis will improve. If we combine that advancement to public recognition, lives will be saved. At an elite level, we also believe that if we pair that knowledge with a robust early diagnostic, we will finally be in a position to achieve early recognition and save lives. This has been our experience at Our Lady of the Lake. Thank you for your time. We really hope this technology helps decrease the mortality rate from sepsis. Good luck. n “The first step in reduction of hospital-acquired sepsis cases is the development of a robust quality and patient safety program. … Once IntelliSep was developed, the quest began to address ways to utilize the technology in helping both emergency patients and inpatients.” What insights were gained during the collaboration with Cytovale in developing the IntelliSep Diagnostic Test? Thomas The collaboration has been extremely important for us. First, we have recognized that partnering with a company that cares as much about patient outcomes as the hospital is critical to success. Second, we needed a partner who wanted to not only do research and create revolutionary technology, but who was also willing to let our internal performance