Netcare, one of South Africa's largest private hospital groups, has applied to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority for approval to distribute an AI-powered clinical decision support tool across its facilities. The application follows a clinical trial conducted in Netcare's intensive care and high care units evaluating whether the algorithm could detect signs of patient deterioration before conventional monitoring methods identify them.
The tool was developed by Telehealth Competence Centre Clinical Solutions GmbH, a Germany-based clinical AI company, and validated through a multi-year collaboration involving researchers from Netcare, TCC, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and DigitalOn Tech. The partnership between Netcare and TCC began in 2023. The algorithm runs on an artificial neural network and machine learning architecture that continuously processes real-time patient data, including heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, through Netcare's existing digital health platform.
Professor Reitze Rodseth, head of clinical data innovation and research at Netcare, described the clinical baseline the AI builds on: "Already, the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score has proven valuable in the critical care setting as an indicator of a patient's potential risk of developing serious conditions like heart failure, respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, infection, sepsis, or acute cardiac arrhythmia." He described where the development roadmap goes next: "Building on the capabilities of the algorithm, we are now turning our attention to models that further protect hospital patients by automatically predicting the risk of developing renal failure or serious respiratory difficulties requiring ventilation while a person is in hospital, and even after they have been discharged home, if necessary."
Professor Christian Storm, CEO and co-founder of TCC GmbH and a specialist in internal medicine, intensive care and emergency medicine, described the data architecture underlying the predictions: "The remote digital intensive-care level of individual monitoring provides real-time, high-frequency data as a basis for AI-guided prediction of a person's medical course, proactively identifying where preventive treatment may be beneficial to guide earlier intervention." Storm also outlined a specific capability the two organizations are now developing: "Another important clinical indicator we're developing aims to calculate the probability of critical care readmission following discharge from the intensive care unit."
Dr Anchen Laubscher, group medical director of Netcare, framed the initiative within the group's broader approach to clinical data: "Today, judicious use of AI has become an essential part of healthcare. The clinical indicators derived from this technology provide valuable data points to support doctors' treatment decisions, often creating opportunities to prevent clinical deterioration. Our partnership with TCC represents an important advancement in the quality of care available to our patients and further enhances the state-of-the-art tools at the fingertips of medical professionals practising in Netcare facilities."
