Soroka Medical Center Collaborates with IAI and Microsoft in treating COVID-19
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Microsoft, and Soroka Medical Center have collaborated to develop a supervision system to collect data on ventilated COVID-19 patients in a single location while providing updated, comprehensive information on patients’ status while minimizing the exposure of medical teams to infection.
The system integrates data from systems and sensors, and performs data cutting and extraction to monitor measures, identify trends, and generate early warnings using artificial intelligence. The system makes it possible to streamline processes, learn, and produce data. The data collected is made available to the medical staff in the control room, a kind of “cockpit” from which remote doctors’ rounds, regular patient management, task management in the ICU, and device management can be carried out.
Data sharing provides access from near and far, utilizing resources inside and outside of Soroka. The data is secured in accordance with most stringent standards. The characteristics of the system were defined and determined jointly by the team of developers and the staff of Soroka’s Internal Medicine ICU.
The system was developed on Microsoft's Azure platform with the support of Microsoft in Israel, using Azure Data Explorer for real-time data intake and data analytics services to analyze and display patient data and video streaming services to visually display patients. This innovation makes it possible to supervise a large number of patients simultaneously, as millions of events can be transferred and displayed in the system per second.
Dr. Shlomi Codish, Director General of Soroka Medical Center commented: "When treating COVID-19 patients, maximum protection of the medical staff is required. One of the most significant challenges we face is the need to minimize physical contact between healthcare providers and patients. We must move to maximum use of remote means of treatment. The digital means, the remote viewing of monitors, respirators, infusion pumps, and other devices connected to the patient, enable us to ensure maximum protection for medical staff. We thank Israel Aerospace Industries for their cooperation and support of the medical teams that are at the forefront of the battle against the virus , promoting quality medical care while ensuring the safety of the staff."
Prof. Yaniv Almog, head of Soroka’s Internal Intensive Care Unit for COVID-19 Patients remarked: "The great advantage of this system is its ability to simulate the routine situation in which I enter the room, see the patient, and collect data from all the devices around him. This is an important advantage allows us to provide safe and comprehensive patient care management even in the era of COVID-19. I see long term benefits from this system: given its early warning capability and its ability to collect large amounts of patient data at early stages of the disease, we can produce a system that warns us of possible deterioration in a patient’s condition, enabling us to respond earlier and possibly improve outcomes."
Yoav Turgeman, Executive Vice President, IAI and CEO of Elta commented: "The IAI has joined the fight against the coronavirus, developing numerous technologies to assist medical teams and hospitalized patients. Elta brings to Soroka Medical Center knowledge and experience from the worlds of intelligence, cyber, radar, and AI, the Aviation Division of the IAI brings its knowledge of supervision and control systems and data collection from the world of aviation. Together with Microsoft, we combine technologies for the remote monitoring of patient metrics, department management, and device control. We will continue to support the national effort to find effective and innovative solutions. And together we will win."
CONTACTS:
Inbar Guttar, Spokesperson, 050-6263063, inbargu@clalit.org.il/ www.soroka.org
Dafna Slyper Ravitz, IAI, Tel. 052-3189797, daravitz@iai.co.il / www.iai.co.il
