Sprint Technology
Engineering and medicine breakthrough reduces mortality
The combination of engineering knowledge and intensive care expertise has led to the development of a new SPRINT technology that reduces the death rate of intensive care patients by 25-40 per cent.
The SPRINT system also significantly reduces the cost of having patients in intensive care long-term, say its developers.
SPRINT has two wheels that manage insulin and nutrition levels in intensive care patients to ensure they are getting the right dose to keep their blood sugar levels in a normal range. The protocol is the result of the collaboration between Christchurch Hospital and Canterbury University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, with funding from the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation.
“The SPRINT project is a great example of Christchurch as a research community where there is a lot of cross-pollination between universities and the medical school,” says Guy Johnson, Director of the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation.
“The sharing of information and ideas between different medical specialties, as well as the university’s engineering and biochemistry specialists, means a better chance of making a breakthrough,” he says.
“We can then optimise the patient’s specific response and optimise their drug delivery and care. The protocol adapts to the individual patients,” says Geoff Chase, Professor in Engineering at the University of Canterbury.
Along with Intensive Care Specialist Geoff Shaw from Christchurch Hospital, the SPRINT protocol is a real breakthrough in patient care.
“The wheel has been one of the most highly accepted medical innovations in the past 20 years – it works, it’s simple and it’s effective,” says Geoff Shaw.
Introduced to Christchurch Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit in August 2005, SPRINT has been used to treat 400 patients.
“Managing the delivery of nutrition and insulin to each individual patient based on their specific requirements reduces both mortality and the progression to other medical problems,” says Dr Shaw.
“As a result we have found that mortality is reduced by 40 per cent if the patient has been in intensive care for five days and by 25 per cent if they’ve been in there for three days.”
International research has shown the need for antibiotics, transfusions, CT scans, ventilation, dialysis treatment and other interventions are also reduced, resulting in lower costs and a shorter hospital stay.
“We have seen fewer complications with these patients, particularly in relation to the need for dialysis for kidney failure, once they leave intensive care,” says Professor Chase.
“We estimate that SPRINT saves between $1500 and $2500 pre patient – that’s about half a million dollars per year in Christchurch Intensive Care for the cost of less than $1 for each SPRINT wheel.”
Nurses have welcomed the system, they say, because it is simple to use, and works automatically. By comparison with the conventional “sliding scale” protocols prescribed by doctors, nurses do not have to keep asking them to rewrite their protocols as patient conditions change.
“SPRINT adapts hour to hour depending on how the patient is and modifies what they receive to keep them in balance,” says Dr Shaw.
The Canterbury Medical Research Foundation has contributed over $22,000 to the overall research programme which also involves investigations into better methods of sedation, cardiovascular control and ventilation.
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