Research Spotlight: Early Sepsis Prediction for Neonates
Karen Fairchild, MD, is a professor of neonatology, neonatologist, and dedicated researcher. Since 2004, she's helped advance research at UVA Health Children's that has saved the lives of countless infants. Her goals extend past survival and into finding ways to help these babies thrive despite a rocky start.
Research into areas like hypothermia for neuroprotection and delayed cord clamping in the context of premature delivery looks at long-term health goals.
See more of her published research here.
Improving Outcomes for Premature Infants Through Innovative Research
What I love about research is being able to take a clinical problem from the patient's bedside to the laboratory or the clinical research environment and then bring discoveries back to patients to improve their outcomes. We can only do research through collaboration, and I've been fortunate to be able to collaborate with other researchers here at UVA, and also throughout the U.S. and internationally.
My name is Karen Fairchild, and I'm professor of pediatrics at UVA in the Division of Neonatology. Through research, we’ve made amazing progress in the neonatal intensive care unit, discovering ways to help premature babies not just survive, but thrive, and lead long, healthy lives.
As a clinician scientist, I've done both clinical and laboratory research in several areas, including hypothermia, which we use for neuroprotection, apnea of prematurity and caffeine treatment, delivery room resuscitation, including delayed cord clamping, and most recently, analyzing vital signs to predict and prevent critical deterioration.
My research team at UVA is a world leader in developing early warning systems for sepsis, which is a severe life-threatening infection. We've discovered patterns of heart rate and oxygen saturation that occur in the preclinical phase of illness. So our work shows that through artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can save lives by displaying changes in vital sign patterns that can bring clinicians to the right bedside at the right time for earlier diagnosis and treatment and improved outcomes.
What are you working on right now?
My main area of research is vital sign-based predictive analytics for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We analyze heart rate and oxygen patterns to predict adverse events and outcomes, and then display risk scores in real-time in the NICU. Clinicians can then use these scores to determine if a baby might be in the early stage of sepsis or severe infection. Treating sepsis earlier has been shown to save lives.
What are the most intriguing potential clinical applications of your work?
Our research group, which is part of the UVA Center for Advanced Medical Analytics (CAMA), collaborates with researchers at three other large academic centers across the US. We have had continuous NIH funding for 12 years to use machine learning and develop algorithms to analyze all vital signs continuously monitored in ICU patients. We’ve shown that our algorithms can predict sepsis or other life-threatening conditions occurring in the next 24 hours. Early warning systems like ours are an example of how artificial intelligence can be used to improve patient outcomes.
What recent discovery has impacted the way you think?
A key aspect of a lot of healthcare research is implementation of proven therapies or technologies. It’s one thing to discover something that improves outcomes, but a big hurdle is getting clinicians’ buy-in, and figuring out how to get a new system up and running in your own center, and more generally. Implementation science involves analysis of human factors and barriers, and determining how to make a new system trusted and usable.
What made you choose UVA Health as the place to do your research?
I was recruited to UVA for my second faculty position. The main reason I accepted this job in 2004 is I was given protected time and support for my research. This initial investment by the Department of Pediatrics had really great return on investment, because I’ve had quite a few NIH grants to support ongoing work.
What do you wish more people knew about your area of research?
The Neonatal ICU is a special place where we care for both preterm and full-term babies with a variety of potentially life-threatening conditions. Many babies survive today because of research done decades ago. We are really grateful that parents of NICU babies consent to participate in clinical trials that are likely to improve outcomes for babies in the future.
How did you become interested in your area of research?
I’ve always been amazed at how the immune system works to fight infection. Unfortunately, for preterm babies, their immune systems are immature and they are at high risk for severe infection and sepsis. I’ve watched babies die of sepsis, which is heartbreaking. To be able to detect and treat sepsis earlier and possibly save lives and improve outcomes is my goal.
