11 May 2020: As the fight against COVID-19 pandemic intensifies various companies are coming together to create newer and innovative methods to fight the virus. IAI, Microsoft and Soroka Medical Center have come together to develop 'Cockpit'. It is a supervision system to Collect Data on Patients Hospitalized in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit on the Azure Platform.
It provides updated and comprehensive information on patients' status while minimizing the exposure of medical teams to infection.
Dr. Shlomi Codish, director general of Soroka Medical Center said, "When treating COVID-19 patients, maximum protection of the medical staff is required. One of the most significant challenges we face in treating these patients is the need to minimize physical contact between healthcare providers and patients. We must move to maximum use of remote means of treatment. The digital means, the remote viewing of monitors, respirators, infusion pumps, and other devices connected to the patient, enable us to maintain maximum distance and ensure maximum protection for medical staff. We thank Israel Aerospace Industries for their cooperation and for their support of the medical teams that are at the forefront of the battle against the virus and thus assisting them in providing quality medical care while ensuring the safety of the staff."
Some of the important features of the system are
- It integrates data from all systems and sensors and performs data cutting and extraction to monitor measures, identify trends, and generate early warnings using artificial intelligence measures.
- Thus it is possible to streamline processes, learn, and produce data.
- The data collected is made available for various needs to the medical staff in the control room, a kind of "cockpit" from which remote doctors' rounds, regular patient management, task management in the ICU, and device management can be carried out.
- Data sharing provides access to all the data from near and far, utilizing the various resources available inside and outside of Soroka.
- The data is secured in accordance with most stringent standards of medical data protection.
The system was demonstrated to Dr. Shlomi Codish, director general of Soroka Medical Center, Yarden Nevo, Associate Director General of Soroka, Eran Barabi, director of the Computing and IT Unit, and Prof. Yaniv Almog, head of the Internal Medicine Intensive Care Unit for COVID-19 Patients.
Prof. Yaniv Almog, head of the Internal Intensive Care Unit for COVID-19 Patients remarked, "The great advantage of the system that was developed is its ability to simulate the routine situation in which I enter the room, see the patient, and collect data from all the devices around him. This is an important advantage that will allow us to cope safely and comprehensively with patient care management even in the era of COVID-19. I see benefits and the potential for widespread use of the system in the future as well. By means of its early warning capability and its ability to collect large amounts of patient data at early stages of the disease, we can produce a system that warns us of possible deterioration in a patient's condition, so that we can respond earlier and possibly prevent it."
The system was developed on Microsoft's Azure platform with the support of Microsoft in Israel, using Azure Data Explorer for real-time data ingestion and data analytics services to analyze and display patient data and video streaming services to visually display patients.
Yoav Turgeman, Executive Vice President, IAI and CEO of Elta said, "The IAI has joined the fight against the coronavirus, and in addition to its ongoing business operations, in recent weeks has developed numerous technologies that assist medical teams and patients in hospitals. Elta brings to Soroka Medical Center knowledge and experience from the worlds of intelligence, cyber, radar, and artificial intelligence, the Aviation Division of the IAI brings its knowledge of supervision and control systems and data collection from the world of aviation, and together with Microsoft, we combine technologies for the monitoring of patient measures, department management, and device control, all without the need for human intervention. We will continue to support the national effort to find effective and innovative solutions. And together we will win."
This development has made it possible to supervise a large number of patients simultaneously, as millions of events can be transferred and displayed in the system per second.hav