Published in NEJM AI, a journal from the New England Journal of Medicine group (DOI: 10.1056/AIoa2500973), the study evaluated outcomes among 23,132 high-risk patients across 11 RWJBarnabas Health hospitals. Deaths among high-risk patients fell from 23.1 percent to 18.6 percent following implementation of the AI-enabled early warning system, representing an 18 percent reduction in the risk-adjusted odds of in-hospital death.

Hospitalized patients can deteriorate quickly, often before obvious warning signs become apparent. Researchers evaluated the Epic Deterioration Index (EDI), an AI-enabled tool that continuously analyzes information already captured in the electronic health record, including vital signs, laboratory results, nursing assessments and age, to identify patients at increased risk of serious clinical decline. The system recalculates risk scores every 15 minutes and automatically alerts rapid response teams when patients reach the highest-risk category.