Etiometry brings Predictive, Patient-specific analytics to bear in the ICU

“Can I actually give you meaningful information on a moment-to-moment basis about patients that is personalized and based on their individual medical history? This is the holy grail of analytics,” says Evan Butler, Co-founder and President of Etiometry. “Personalized Medicine is focused on genetics, but we’re focused on Personalized Medicine itself.”

Etiometry, Inc. is focused on delivering real-time, patient-specific predictive analytics to doctors managing critically ill patients. “Our software combines purely mathematical algorithms with an understanding of human physiology,” says Butler, “but it does not make decisions for the clinicians. It is up to the doctors to decide on specific treatment. Our software helps point them in the right direction.”

The heart of Etiometry’s solution is the T3 software platform.   Etiometry - T3 Screen Shot (2)T3 takes patient-specific data from labs tests, hospital monitors and life-support devices and runs the data through proprietary algorithms. T3 highlights important patient data and red flags dangerous trends. It is an early warning sign that enhances the clinical decision-making process.   Finally, T3 enables doctors to implement complicated treatment protocols in a critically ill patient population. T3 received FDA 510(k) approval in early 2015 and has been implemented in over a dozen ICUs in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Etiometry was founded in 2010 by three Boston University graduates with strong ties to the university. Evan received both his BA and MS degrees (Physics, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering) from BU. Dimitar Baronov is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder. Dimitar completed his MSc and PhD degrees (Aerospace Engineering) and was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BU until early 2015. Jesse Lock is a pediatrician and Chief Medical Officer of Etiometry. Jesse completed his Biomedical Engineering PhD from BU. All the founders met at BU and were determined to work on a solution to a significant healthcare problem. Then, they formed Etiometry to implement their solution in the hospital setting. The management team successfully raised $5.1M in funding from the federal government and private investors. The company is made up of 14 employees, including software engineers, finance, and sales people.

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Etiometry’s initial target market is the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. When you visualize the ICU, you imagine a patient hooked up to a plethora of monitors and other life-saving devices. There is a near-constant stream of patient data that is generated from lab tests and these monitors and devices. In the ICU, patient data evolves so fast that it can be difficult for doctors to keep up and follow treatment protocols. All this information is not collected, assembled, and presented in a way that is meaningful to doctors. “ICUs these days are data rich, but information poor,” says Butler. “Creating an algorithm that visualizes and analyzes data gained from a patient can help doctors immensely in a risk-management approach.” A better patient management approach is expected to yield enormous cost savings to the healthcare system. An estimated $18B in annual healthcare costs are attributed to patient management failures that could have been avoided. The ICU represents a disproportionate share of in-hospital direct costs (estimated at 50%), and a significant share of these avoidable management failures.

Besides the ICU, the company plans to expand T3 into other hospital settings, such as the operating room, emergency room, and step-down unit. There is opportunity to expand the current offering with additional algorithms that the company is developing. Finally, Butler believes Etiometry could be leveraged in clinical trials to collect better data about patients at an earlier stage and on the effectiveness of treatments. More information about Etiometry can be found here.

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