AI Against Sepsis: A Research-Driven Breakthrough Saving Thousands of Lives
An artificial intelligence platform born from federally funded research is transforming how hospitals detect and treat one of medicine’s deadliest threats: Sepsis. Cutting mortality rates and offering a blueprint for future health tech innovation
The Hidden Killer: Sepsis and the Need for Speed
Sepsis is a swift, often silent threat—an overreaction of the body’s immune system that can spiral into organ failure and death. It claims roughly 270,000 lives annually in the United States, often because it mimics other conditions and evades early detection. For every hour that treatment is delayed in severe cases, the risk of death escalates.
But a new AI-driven solution is changing that trajectory.
Meet TREWS: The AI Platform Saving Lives
Developed by Suchi Saria, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, the Targeted Real-Time Early Warning System (TREWS) is a machine-learning platform now in use across dozens of hospitals. By analyzing electronic health records and spotting subtle warning signs of sepsis, TREWS helps doctors identify infections nearly two hours earlier than traditional diagnostics.
This speed matters: since its launch in 2023, the system has reduced sepsis mortality by 18%, shortened hospital stays by half a day, and cut ICU use by 10%.
How It Works: Seamless AI Integration
Unlike clunky tech tools that disrupt workflows, TREWS boasts a 90% adoption rate, integrating smoothly into hospital systems. It processes both structured data (like lab results and vital signs) and unstructured inputs (such as physicians’ notes) to detect patients at risk and suggest clinical interventions.
This approach supports clinicians from emergency admission through discharge, even during staff transitions—an essential feature amid today’s national shortages of health workers and the growing complexity of patient care.
A Personal Mission Turned National Innovation
For Saria, the mission is personal. She began focusing on sepsis after losing her nephew to the disease in 2017. Backed by National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, she transformed that loss into groundbreaking work.
TREWS was made possible through support from the NSF’s Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier program, which enabled her team to pursue long-term, high-impact research that wasn’t immediately profitable—but was essential.
“At a time when clinicians are stretched thinner than ever, patients are older and sicker, and resources are finite, funding like this is essential,” says Saria. “It powers the kind of breakthroughs that ensure health care evolves to meet tomorrow's demands.”
From Lab to Life: The Birth of Bayesian Health
Through an NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, Saria spun her research into a startup—Bayesian Health. This venture took TREWS from a research prototype to a scalable, real-world platform that’s now expanding into other critical conditions beyond sepsis.
Bayesian Health grew its clinical partnerships by over 800% last year, working with academic, regional, and community hospital systems to deliver smarter, faster care.
The Cost of Innovation—and the Cost of Losing It
Saria, who also serves as the founding research director of the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare and is a member of the Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute, underscores the stakes of continued federal research investment.
“Without this funding, innovations like TREWS—born out of rigorous science and clinical collaboration—would not reach the bedside.”
The danger of reduced research support, she warns, isn’t abstract. It means institutions like Johns Hopkins—long leaders in cutting-edge care—may lose the ability to innovate. More critically, patients nationwide may lose access to lifesaving technologies.
A Call to Action: Invest in the Future of Health Care
Federal funding fuels the scientific discoveries that become tomorrow’s clinical standards. Without it, breakthroughs stall, and systems already under strain risk falling behind.
“We risk creating an innovation gap,” says Saria, “where health care technology becomes stagnant, unable to keep pace with growing clinician shortages, rising patient complexity, and system-wide resource constraints.”
Investment in research is not optional. It’s the foundation for a future where health care is not only smarter—but more humane, more responsive, and capable of saving lives that would otherwise be lost.
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