Biomed Eng Online
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Clinical verification of a clinical decision support system for ventilator weaning.
Weaning is typically regarded as a process of discontinuing mechanical ventilation in the daily practice of an intensive care unit (ICU). Among the ICU patients, 39%-40% need mechanical ventilator for sustaining their lives. The predictive rate of successful weaning achieved only 35-60% for decisions made by physicians. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are promising in enhancing diagnostic performance and improve healthcare quality in clinical setting. To our knowledge, a prospective study has never been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the CDSS in ventilator weaning before. In this study, the CDSS capable of predicting weaning outcome and reducing duration of ventilator support for patients has been verified. ⋯ The CDSS is demonstrated to be effective in identifying the earliest time of ventilator weaning for patients to resume and sustain spontaneous breathing, thereby avoiding unnecessary prolonged ventilator use and decreasing healthcare cost.