Innovations in Data-Driven Approaches to Improve Sepsis Care for Children in Low-Resource Settings

November 28, 2022
Samuel Akech at ASTMH 2022

​This past November, Action on Sepsis and the Centre for Internal Child Health (CICH) at BC Children's Hospital brought together leading young researchers at the 2022 American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting to share their work developing and leveraging frugal digital technology and data-driven vulnerability prediction to improve care across different points of a critically-ill child’s journey.

Panelists described development and validation of risk prediction models, highlighting how such models can guide targeted, affordable interventions. Attendees had a chance to learn how practical and affordable digital technology equipped with clinical algorithms can support health workers with identifying, treating, and following-up high-risk children, improving outcomes within health facilities and at home, and the role of promising new host and pathogen biomarkers in enhancing the predictive capability of prognostic models.

Check out the speaker's presentations below:

Arjun Chandna: Risk stratification of pediatric febrile illness to inform effective community management and earlier referral to higher-level care.

Samuel AkechSmart Triage, a prediction-based facility quality improvement program for critically ill children.

Teresa Kortz: Point-of-care biomarkers for mortality risk stratification in pediatric severe febrile illness; using next-generation sequencing for etiology of severe febrile illness.

Matthew Wiens: Smart Discharges, post-discharge interventions based on the risk of post-discharge mortality.

Adapted from CICH's website.


  • Research Highlight

First Nations land acknowledegement

Action on Sepsis operates on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples — xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We invite everyone to reflect on the traditional territories and land that they currently work and live on.


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