'Clinical Early Warning Scores' to predict future deterioration of patients

Doctors and nurses are always grateful when they are given advance notice that a patient is about to seriously deteriorate (or 'crash', to use today's clinical vernacular).

Recent years have seen important advances towards this goal in the form of what are known as 'Clinical Early Warning Scores.' These simple computational tools are intended to help predict future clinical deterioration, often related to the onset of sepsis. (Sepsis is a potentially life-ending condition that arises when the body's immune response to infection damages the patient's own organs.) The Open Anesthesia Journal is pleased to announce the publication of a clinical review on this important topic. Entitled Clinical Early Warning Scores: New Clinical Tools in Evolution and authored by Dr. D. John Doyle from the Department of General Anesthesiology at Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi, this open-access peer-reviewed journal article will be valuable as a starting point for hospitals and clinics interested in launching their own clinical early warning initiative. The article also critically comments on the state of the art of early warning algorithms, and makes suggestions for further research initiatives.