# Sepsis Physiomarkers for Appropriate Risk Knowledge of monitored patients in the ICU (SPARK-ICU)

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $497,097

## Abstract

Project Summary
Critically ill patients admitted to the ICU who develop secondary infection and sepsis, can face up to a five-fold
increase in the risk for death when compared to non-sepsis patients. The majority of patients who developed
secondary infections are more critically ill at admission and therefore require significantly greater resources.
Traditional machine learning algorithms for predicting sepsis has been largely focused and relied on the use of
structured data from the electronic medical record (EMR), however the EMR was developed largely as a billing
mechanism and an audit log for clinical workflow. Hence, much of the structure and availability of data are often
time-delayed, prone to errors from manual entry, biases from various institutional, personal and training biases,
and finally contain a significant amount of missing data. In this proposal, we seek to discover novel
`physiomarkers' extracted from continuous physiological data streams, generated from non-human derived data
sources, that predict the onset of sepsis in this critical population. Using such routinely collected data, along with
common clinical indicators extracted from the EMR, we propose to generate robust machine learning algorithms
that can be more generalized, reproducible and removed from the biases and pitfalls of manual data entry. We
propose that such classes of models not only may alert clinicians to acute and critically ill patients at risk for
developing sepsis in real-time, but also investigate intervention effectiveness, such as volume responsiveness
and support the discovery of novel sub-types of sepsis. Secondly, much of the existing literature on predictive
models for sepsis focus on hospitalized patients in the general ward, however, models that predict the onset of
sepsis among patients who developed secondary infections after admission to the ICU is limited. In our previous
work, we have demonstrated that markers discovered from continuous numeric data streams can inform earlier
prediction of sepsis in children and adults. However, those analysis did not use high-fidelity data from the
waveforms, which encapsulate rich characteristics of physiology. Therefore, by emphasizing the discovery of
such novel markers and through the application of data-driven learning algorithms, we expect to develop
algorithms and tools that improve our understanding of the changing physiologic dynamics of sepsis in critically
ill patient. In this proposed program, we will integrate knowledge across a number of distinctive expertise that
spans signal processing, mathematics, computer science and medicine to develop sophisticated tools that can
analyze such data to reveal meaningful insight. In short, we will contribute significant knowledge about the role
and utility of complex physiological interactions that are at present abundantly available in clinical practice but
seldom used for clinical decision making.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10875604
- **Project number:** 5R01GM139967-05
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rishikesan Kamaleswaran
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $497,097
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-10 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10875604

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10875604, Sepsis Physiomarkers for Appropriate Risk Knowledge of monitored patients in the ICU (SPARK-ICU) (5R01GM139967-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10875604. Licensed CC0.

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