Ambient Clinical Analytics is a new startup, founded by Mayo Clinic researchers with help from Silicon Valley investors, that aims to bring data assimilation, communication and analytics to the bedside.

[See also: EHRs may help save lives from sepsis]

Backed by Rock Health and the Social+Capital Partnership, the venture develops decision support tools for intensive care units, operating rooms and emergency departments. Its technologies, which were developed at the Mayo Clinic, enable real-time access to process-of-care information and analytics.

"Healthcare providers need efficient and organized tools at their fingertips in order to increase patient safety," said Al Berning, CEO of Ambient Clinical Analytics, in a press statement. This technology, "developed by clinicians for clinicians," represented a "unique opportunity to truly transform how patients are treated" in the ICU, OR and ED, he said.

[See also: Mayo Clinic launches data-sharing lab]

Ambient Clinical Analytics' platform comprises three distinct tools:

• AWARE (Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation) is a clinical EMR technology that combats information overload by using analytics to filter relevant patient data and support best-care practices for ICUs and ORs.
• Mayo Clinic YES Board is a multi-patient management tool that offers real-time situational awareness for EDs and hospital pediatric departments.
• Syndromic Surveillance provides smart alerts – or "sniffers" – that address hospital dangers such as sepsis.

"The impetus behind creating AWARE was that I would arrive in the ICU and spend the first hours just coming to terms with basic patient facts," said Brian Pickering, MD, a Mayo clinician and a founding team member for Ambient Clinical Analytics, in a statement. "By applying technology to this situation, we found a way to hit the ground running. The application was designed to make transitions of care safer and more efficient."


Ambient Clinical Analytic offers two scientifically-validated tools: the patented Septic Shock Sniffer and the patent pending Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury Sniffer, both developed by Mayo clinicians Vitaly Herasevich, MD, and and Ognjen Gajic, MD.

"The amount of data behind AWARE is vast, but unlike any other system I've used (it) shows me what I need to see, at the point of care, organized in the way I think," said John M. Litell, DO, attending physician in emergency and critical care medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in a statement. "As a result, I can approach patients in a more standardized and organized fashion."