NEPHROLOGY • CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
“For physician researchers, that would take all of our lives,” says
Dr. Faubel. “For them it’s just more code.”
Soon, that code will pull de-identified EMR data from Children’s
Colorado, University of Colorado systems and public health records
to flow everything from patient history to electrolyte levels to CRRT
effluent into a convenient dashboard for M-TRAC researchers. Led
by Dr. Soranno, it’s been the largest-scale project in Health Data
Compass’s five-year history.
“We gave them a huge document of variables and variables and
variables,” says Dr. Soranno. “The database searches diagnostic
codes, so we had to come up with literally hundreds of definitions.
It really was tedious. But that was where the collaboration really paid
off. Everyone got a chance to include what they wanted. We came up
with 300 variables altogether.”
“A lot of it is flow sheet data,” says Davis. “So, for example, you could
enter heart rate into the flow sheet every ten minutes and have
minute-by-minute tracking of all these outcomes. It’s a great way
to capture complex data elements over time. But the scope was
definitely challenging.”
“It’s our hope and expectation that this will be the biggest
critical care and nephrology research database in the world,”
says Dr. Soranno.
The background work complete, it’s still a few months from coming
online. The next stage is to assess the database’s accuracy by
manually pulling records and comparing them against its returns.
It’s a huge data set, and Davis expects bugs. Fine-tuning the
algorithms is just part of the process.
M-TRAC researchers are already analyzing the kind of systemic
information the database will pull. And they’re already finding
connections. For example, patients with AKI and elevated chloride
levels have nine times the risk of mortality — a life-threatening
problem potentially solved by a simple change of fluids. The database
will accelerate the pace of those kinds of findings immeasurably.
For patients with chronic, systemic conditions like HLHS — and for
almost every patient, child or adult, in every ICU — those findings will
save lives. That’s exciting. For Dr. Soranno, the most exciting part is
what stands to be revealed.
“We don’t know what we don’t know,” she says. “Yet.” ●
36
NEPHROLOGY
100%
1-year patient and
graft survival
~50%
Of transplants in 2018 came
from living donors
TOP 5
Nationwide for nephrology
programs in volume of total
and living donor kidney
transplants
36
Specialists provide support
to those close to home and
traveling out of state
NO
BRAKES
Lucy Washburn was a fussy baby.
For new parents Cynthia and
Brad Washburn, that didn’t seem
unusual. That’s just what kind of
baby Lucy was. But when Cynthia
noticed at 3 months what looked
like a hernia around Lucy’s groin,
she decided to take her to the
pediatrician near their home in
Winter Park, Colorado, nestled into
the mountains west of Denver at
about 9,500 feet.
“They drew blood,” says Brad, “and
it all just exploded from there.”
continued on the following page
LEADERSHIP:
Jens Goebel, MD
Chief, Pediatric Nephrology
For nephrology healthcare
professional resources, visit
childrenscolorado.org/
NephrologyHCP.
NEW CONSTELLATIONS
37