Project aims to tame flood of hospital ICU data

A sedated woman lay in an Emory University Hospital intensive care bed, surrounded by machines and monitors — including a ventilator, feeding tube and six intravenous solution pumps. Each machine poured out data on treatment and vital signs. It was a lot to keep track of — perhaps too much. Nurses and doctors caring for multiple patients struggle to keep up with every beep and alarm, let alone stop and think about how all the readings may add up. "If you were to ask me, 'What's been going on with this patient for the last minute? The last five minutes? The last 30 minutes?' I couldn't tell you. There's so much data going by," said Dr. Tim Buchman, director of the Emory Center for Critical Care.