Mount Sinai Researchers Streamline Patient Data to Find Patterns in COVID-19 Patients

With the influx of patient data resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the Mount Sinai COVID Informatics Center is collaborating with London-based software company Clinithink to uncover key findings that can enable better treatment methods for COVID-19 patients.

Clinithink’s artificial intelligence platform, CLiX, processes large volumes of data from physician notes and documents within electronic health records, allowing providers to save time and effectively determine key information on patient conditions.

“We are currently using the platform to mine clinical documents in order to extract information to further our understanding of COVID-19 and its complexities, so we can determine the best course of action for individual patients,” said Girish Nadkarni, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Nephrology), Clinical Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health, and Co-Director of the Mount Sinai COVID Informatics Center.

Through the use of Clinithink’s platform “CLiX^TM unlock,” the COVID Informatics Center is creating risk scores for COVID-19 patient symptoms, sifting through data that has been stripped of any personal information to find patterns that can ultimately lead to new discoveries in COVID-19 treatment.

“Clinithink is enabling us to identify and distinguish the symptoms in hospitalized COVID-19 patients during admission, in order to determine if and when new symptoms are appearing during their hospitalization,” Dr. Nadkarni said.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was the first academic institution in the nation to partner with Clinithink in 2016, its original use to accelerate the prescreening process to identify eligible candidates for clinical trials.

“The collaboration between Clinithink and Mount Sinai represents how novel research can be translated into clinical practice,” Chris Tackaberry, CEO of Clinithink, said. “We are delighted to see Mount Sinai extend the use of our platform as they continue to make breakthrough discoveries in COVID-19.”

The collaboration was facilitated by Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the technology commercialization engine at Mount Sinai.

“Collaborating with Clinithink improves the way we understand and serve our patients,” said Erik Lium, PhD, President of MSIP and Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Innovation Officer at the Mount Sinai Health System. “We look forward to seeing how Dr. Nadkarni’s team leverages Clinithink to extend our knowledge about COVID-19, and potentially improve treatment and patient outcomes.”