Reliable Organ Transplantation

Original Article Posted on Machine Learning Times‍

Organ transplantation is the medical area where real-time decisions can literally make the difference between life and death. Identifying logistic flaws in the system, removing uncertainty, and minimizing the risk for errors are imperative for the wellbeing of patients. Since transplantation networks carry out critical missions, they require state-of-the-art performance and reliability. The technological advances brought by software, hardware, and IoT platforms can support medical healthcare workers all throughout this vital undertaking.

IoT sensors communicate environment data from a variety of data sources. This data comes in huge volumes and varieties, and making sense of it requires modern software and hardware tools. Cloud technologies enable the collection, integration, and analysis of sensor data in real-time. These platforms make it possible to collect real-time data from an environment and take reliable decisions. Modern transplantation solutions for alerting, monitoring, and tracking are all integrating such modern technologies.

‍MediGO offers an IoT and cloud-powered solution for the extremely complex transplantation system. First of all, they enable tracking the vital signs of in-transit organs. The exact location and conditions of the organ (such as humidity, temperature, pressure, and light exposure) are tracked and communicated in real-time. Additionally, the data is collected and analyzed for further operational improvements across the transplantation network.“

Transplantation requires coordinating an abundance of moving parts and communicating with Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO), transplant centers, surgeons, hospitals, couriers, patients, and other stakeholders. Right now communication between these groups is done manually — organ arrival time is estimated based on last known location and recipients are called in to prepare for surgery without any certainty that the organ will arrive close to its estimated time.” – Chetan Paydenkar, General Manager of MediGO.

Such a solution shows how integrating sensing technologies with modern data processing frameworks creates opportunities for more reliable health care services.