The Immune Profiling Panel: towards a new ICU patient care pathway

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the body’s response to infection. The Word Health Organisation notes that it may affect more than 30 million people worldwide every year. Although sepsis management is improving, patients are still at high risk of death from secondary complications brought on by immune system failure – such as Healthcare Associated Infections that occur during hospitalisation or chronic impairment of vital functions. The standard care pathway for patients currently does not include a test to assess immune status and allow for personalised care of those at high risk of sepsis and its complications.

The IMPACCT project aims at validating an innovative diagnostic tool to address this need, creating a new care pathway, to reduce healthcare costs and the human costs of chronic critical illness caused by sepsis.

Immune profile for each patient allows personalised care

IMPACCT’s solution is the Immune Profiling Panel (IPP), a rapid, easy-to-use and cost-effective diagnostic test, based on a panel of biomarkers that can assess a patient’s immune status. It is performed from a patient blood sample on the widely available FilmArray® Multiplex PCR System from bioMérieux. The new IPP automated platform allows for testing right in the intensive care unit (ICU), with easily interpretable results available within 45 minutes.

The test gives ICU clinicians information about the immune status of sepsis ICU patients and risks of deterioration. Using this information doctors can give personalised care, including preventative measures and special treatment.

The IPP solution will drastically improve patient management and outcomes and reduce the global economic burden of sepsis for healthcare systems. The impacts we can expect include shortened ICU stays, improved patient recovery and limited antibiotics use.

EIT Health partnership accelerates deployment

The IMPACCT project is in keeping with the EIT Health Focus Area of “Improving Care Pathways” because it will allow the use of biomarkers to objectively stratify patients, creating a personalised care pathway for the entire sepsis ICU patient journey.

EIT Health accelerates the market launch of this project by providing a network of excellence, strong infrastructure, financing support and international visibility – all of which are key to implementing the IPP in clinical practice and beginning to improve sepsis patient care management.