title: A decision support system for the treatment of patients with ventricular assist device support.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heart failure (HF) is affecting millions of people every year and it is characterized by impaired ventricular performance, exercise intolerance and shortened life expectancy. Despite significant advancements in drug therapy, mortality of the disease remains excessively high, as heart transplant remains the gold standard treatment for end-stage HF when no contraindications subsist. Traditionally, implanted Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) have been employed in order to provide circulatory support to patients who cannot survive the waiting time to transplantation, reducing the workload imposed on the heart. In many cases that process could recover its contractility performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The SensorART platform focuses on the management and remote treatment of patients suffering from HF. It provides an interoperable, extendable and VAD-independent solution, which incorporates various hardware and software components in a holistic approach, in order to improve the quality of the patients' treatment and the workflow of the specialists. This paper focuses on the description and analysis of Specialist's Decision Support System (SDSS), an innovative component of the SensorART platform.
  
  
  METHODS
  The SDSS is a Web-based tool that assists specialists on designing the therapy plan for their patients before and after VAD implantation, analyzing patients' data, extracting new knowledge, and making informative decisions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SDSS offers support to medical and VAD experts through the different phases of VAD therapy, incorporating several tools covering all related fields; Statistics, Association Rules, Monitoring, Treatment, Weaning, Speed and Suction Detection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SDSS and its modules have been tested in a number of patients and the results are encouraging.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Karvounis
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Tsipouras
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tzallas
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Katertsidis
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stefanou
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goletsis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frigerio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verde
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Caruso
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meyns
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Terrovitis
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Trivella
authors.affiliation: Dimitrios I. Fotiadis, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Dept. of Material Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, PO Box 1186, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece, E-mail: fotiadis@cc.uoi.gr.
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Fotiadis
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005103:Expert Systems; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011182:Postoperative Care; D058996:Quality Improvement; D019114:Remote Consultation; D012984:Software; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D057188:Workflow
keywords: Heart failure; decision support system; ventricular assist devices