Maintaining Glycemic Control in a Critical Care Environment (GlucoNotify)

Hyperglycemia has been shown to be an independent risk factor of mortality in patients with stroke and myocardial infarction. Furthermore, strict control of hyperglycemia reduces mortality and rates of infectious complications in surgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Several published clinical trials have demonstrated morbidity and mortality benefits of moderate-to-tight glycemic control in an intensive care environment. This paper surveys the utilization of a fuzzy knowledge-based control system, GlucoNotify, which was established as a real-time application in an ICU at the Vienna general hospital, based on the use of a Patient Data Management System (PDMS). Fuzzy logic provides excellent reasoning methods for approximate inference. This approach may be suitable for intensive care medicine, where experience and intuition play an important role in decision making.