ICUs–and indeed, any acute care setting–have a soundtrack of boops and beeps that accompany regular telemetry of data from multiple devices. Alarms which indicate emergencies shatter the rhythm, eventually inducing ‘alarm fatigue’. What if ICUs could get a step or two ahead and use the torrent of data to predict a downturn in a patient’s condition and warn clinicians before that alarm goes off? That is the idea behind the system being developed at Boston Children’s Hospital with a local data analytics startup, Etiometry.  The latter’s Risk Analytics model is designed to transform data into clinically actionable information and to predict decompensation–a worsening or emergency status for the patient. For the cardiac intensive unit at BCH, the Stability Index pops up on the vital signs screen. “Doctors choose different parameters to measure, then the Etiometry system renders its risk assessment on a simple numerical scale, with 0 being most stable and 4 the least.” Not the first innovation for Boston Children’s either; with another software provider, they developed a single view of vital signs interface dubbed T3.  Boston Globe, FierceMobileHealthcare