When you think of Palantir Technologies, what comes to mind? Defense contracts and surveillance for law enforcement, right?
But Palantir has teamed up with doctors at Tampa General Hospital to cut sepsis deaths by 68%, according to research published by the UK Times. Palantir was previously based in Palo Alto but now has headquarters in Aventura, Fla.
Palantir technology has allowed doctors to detect sepsis within an hour of a patient’s admission to the hospital, allowing nurses to give them lifesaving antibiotics sooner. The Tampa hospital reports this software has saved 886 lives since August 2022.
Difficult to detect sepsis
Sepsis is notoriously difficult to catch early. It can begin with small shifts in vital signs that do not immediately stand out – slight increases in heart rate, minor temperature changes, subtle indicators that can easily be lost in the noise of a busy hospital floor. Once it takes hold, though, it can escalate quickly, triggering organ failure and, in many cases, death. Roughly one in five patients diagnosed with sepsis dies.
The system pulls together data from across the hospital – vital signs, lab results, clinician notes – and analyzes it continuously to flag early signs of sepsis.
Dr. Jaimie Weber, vice president of medical informatics at Tampa General Hospital, said the results are evident in both the data and the discharges.
A game-changer
“This is someone’s mother, brother, sister who is going home, when before this project and these tools, they would not have. From a clinical perspective, it’s a game-changer.”
“Sepsis is something where time is of the essence. Diagnosing sepsis in a timely manner and getting appropriate antibiotics and appropriate treatment to the patients is what saves lives,” Weber said.
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