A treatment decision support system for patients receiving Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) therapy

The platform of SensorART emphases on the controlling and remote treatment of patients suffering from failure of the heart, using an implantable Ventricular Assist Device (VAD). It provides an extendable, interoperable and independent from VAD solution, which includes different software and hardware components in a holistic approach, in order to improve the quality the treatment of the patients and the workflow of the medical experts. In this work, we present one of the core modules of the SensorART platform, the specialist´s decision support system (SDSS) which assists health professionals in designing the best treatment strategy. The SDSS supports the specialists on deciding the best treatment strategy for a VAD patient. It has the following functionalities: a) Selection of the most suitable candidates for VAD weaning, b) Decision of the most appropriate treatment strategy for the medication process, c) Analysis of patients´ data and the extraction of new knowledge, d) Detection of different pump states and the identification possible issues associated to the suction phenomenon and e) Identification of the most proper pump speed settings. The SDSS combines medical knowledge with efficient data-driven techniques, using a design that is based on approved principles and standards that ensure the avoidance of either business or technical barriers [1].