ACM TechNews
Safer Blood Transfusions, Chemotherapy, Being Developed By UMass Amherst Researchers, Health Care Professionals
University of Massachusetts Amherst (07/22/08) Clarke, Lori A.
University of Massachusetts Amherst computer scientists are working with
health care professionals to analyze medical procedures, like blood
transfusions and chemotherapy treatments, with the intention of improving
patient safety and to analyze the flow of patients in emergency rooms to
reduce waiting time. "Health care workers are dealing with new machinery
and medical activities that are increasingly complex, and a 1999 report by
the Institute of Medicine found that medical accidents account for almost
100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year," says UMass professor of computer
science Lori Clarke. "Computers can help by detecting flaws in the
processes used to deliver medical care, and confirm that efforts to fix the
flaws don't create other problems down the line." One of the first
procedures the team of computer scientists analyzed was a process for
performing blood transfusions that is based on a national standard and is a
solid representation of blood transfusion processes used at hospitals
throughout the country. The procedure was selected by adverse events,
including giving patients the wrong type of blood or giving blood to the
wrong patient, have been reported nationally and could cause serious harm
or even death. The researchers aimed to isolate flaws in the process so it
could be made safer. Analysis revealed a "deadlock," detectable through
software engineering techniques, which is essentially a situation where the
participants would have to wait endlessly that occurs when a nurse submits
a request for blood, but the blood bank needs the nurse to determine the
patient's blood type first, causing both parties to wait on the other. The
researchers developed technologies that identified the cause of the problem
and proposed a solution, which was requiring nurses to check the
availability of the blood type before notifying the blood bank. The
researchers also identified a problem in chemotherapy, where doses are
based on the patient's height and weight, but a patient's height and weight
were measured only once at the beginning of treatment. The researchers
employed software engineering tools usually used to define and analyze
complex software systems, including the special language Little-JIL. The
project will eventually create a suite of tools that the UMass researchers
hope will be used by the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies
health care organizations.
http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/76937.php
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