Team FAINT takes second place in the ESICM datathon grande finale!
Two PointCaré team members partcipated in the 2024 ESICM (European Society of Intensive Care Medicine) datathon. Together with KULAK-KUL researchers they joined forces as team FAINT (Flanders AI and INTensive care). For this challenge team FAINT focused on mechanically ventilated ICU patients. The initiation of mechanically ventilation in critically ill patients is a high risk intervention. Mechanical ventilation does not only represent a sever burden of disease but also impacts outcome. As a consequence, physicians have to take difficult decisions on when to reduce ventilatory support (the process of “weaning the ventilator”). To facilitate this weaning process, the placement of a temporary tracheacanula may be needed. Team FAINT developed an approach using time-dependent clustering to provide further insights defining “phenotypes” of mechanically ventilated patients who may benefit from the placement of a tracheacanula in a more early stage of the weaning process. As a consequence, this approach may lead to a relevant decision support tool for ICU caregivers.
Together with 13 teams worldwide we competed for the finale. We are delighted to take the second place in the 2024 ESICM datathon! As a consequence we have the opportunity to present our work at the 2024 ESICM Symposium in Barcelona. Above all we were very pleased with the nice and fruitful collaboration between researchers, engineers and clinicians. At PointCaré we are convinced that such hybrid teams have more than one step ahead in tackling complex clinical questions. We therefore embedded this approach at PointCaré from the very beginning.
