Funded by a $2.45 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Connected Emergency Care (CEC) Patient Safety Learning Lab at Johns Hopkins will use systems engineering methods to reduce health and financial harm for ED patients, with an initial focus on patients with lower respiratory tract infections.

Patient safety is of particular concern in a fast-paced, high-volume emergency department setting. According to the project proposal, the research team plans to harness electronic health record (EHR) data to give clinical care teams real-time and predictive insights for patient care. The lab’s main objective is to mitigate problems caused by suboptimal diagnosis, treatment, and disposition (admission vs. discharge) decisions using advanced data science methods and EHR-integrated clinical decision support (CDS).

With these tools, the team will establish a connected (closed-loop) emergency care system that aims to make patient care safer, higher quality, and more affordable.