Ruhr University Bochum, University Hospital Bochum, Knappschaft Hospital Bochum

As part of the LifeSciences.NRW leading market competition under the auspices of the NRW Leading Market Agency, the consortium for the SepsisDataNet.NRW – Digitised Pattern Recognition for the Personalised Treatment of Sepsis Patients project received the award from the project management organisation. In addition to the consortium leader of the cooperation project, the Knappschaft Hospital Bochum of the University Hospital Bochum at the Ruhr University Bochum, two research institutions of the Ruhr University Bochum and five other clinics from NRW belong to the consortium. On the industrial side, AYOXXA Biosystems in Cologne and KAIROS in Bochum contribute their expertise.

The Lead Market Agency NRW conducts the leading market competitions on behalf of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The grants from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-2020: “Investments in growth and employment”. The second round of submissions for the LifeSciences.NRW leading market competition involved 51 entries, 9 of which impressed the experts so much that they were proposed for funding – including “SepsisDataNet.NRW – Digitalised Pattern Recognition for the Personalised Treatment of Sepsis Patients”.

Sepsis – Number 3 Cause of Death in Germany

With 165 deaths per day, sepsis is the third most frequent cause of death in Germany after heart attacks. Against the background of a very high mortality rate of 30 – 50% in patients with severe sepsis, the aim of the project is the development of a sepsis bioassay prototype and a decision support system based on the networking of the participating clinics. This forms the basis for an individualised therapy adapted to the immune status, which should significantly reduce the number of deaths. Biomarkers or clinical tests that characterize the immunological syndrome of sepsis well do not yet exist.

5 steps on the way to the project goal – the improved diagnosis of sepsis

1. Data collection in the sense of clinical and molecular biological big data of 1000 patients with severe sepsis by digitizing and networking university hospitals in NRW and integrating experts from the fields of immunology, bioinformatics and intensive care medicine.
2. Setting up a biomaterial bank as a basis for the analyses carried out in the project and beyond
3. Cooperation of various experts in NRW, who characterize the immune system at different times of sepsis on the basis of created bio-marker patterns
4. Bioinformatic bundling of clinical data and parallel data collected for immunological pattern analysis
5. The preparation of this data for AYYOXA for the development of a sepsis bioassay prototype, which provides a score based solely on the concentrations of soluble biomarkers, thereby providing information on the immune status and prognosis of the patient, and for the development of a decision support module by KAIROS, which not only increases the sensitivity and specificity of the newly developed sepsis bioassay through classification models, but also supports physicians in their personalized therapy decisions

In this project, KAIROS will contribute its experience from more than 10 years of developing IT system solutions for the healthcare sector. KAIROS has two main tasks in the project. On the one hand, the establishment of the database system and the standardization of the information, on the other hand, the integration of the required data. For this purpose, KAIROS implements the interfaces required within CentraXX to numerous systems and to communicate with the central facility. KAIROS is also responsible for the development of the Meta Data Repository and for the integration, monitoring, testing and, if necessary, adaptation of all components. Finally, KAIROS is also developing the Decission Support module, which provides the data-supported information that physicians and patients need to make decisions as part of a decision support process.