TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid Analysis of Diagnostic and Antimicrobial Patterns in R (RadaR)
T2 - Interactive Open-Source Software App for Infection Management and Antimicrobial Stewardship
AU - Luz, Christian
AU - Berends, Matthias
AU - Dik, Jan-Willem
AU - Lokate, Antonia
AU - Pulcini, Céline
AU - Glasner, Corinna
AU - Sinha, Bhanu
N1 - ©Christian Friedemann Luz, Matthijs S Berends, Jan-Willem H Dik, Mariëtte Lokate, Céline Pulcini, Corinna Glasner, Bhanu Sinha. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 24.05.2019.
PY - 2019/6/11
Y1 - 2019/6/11
N2 - Background: Analyzing process and outcome measures for all patients diagnosed with an infection in a hospital, including those suspected of having an infection, requires not only processing of large datasets but also accounting for numerous patient parameters and guidelines. Substantial technical expertise is required to conduct such rapid, reproducible, and adaptable analyses; however, such analyses can yield valuable insights for infection management and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) teams.Objective: The aim of this study was to present the design, development, and testing of RadaR (Rapid analysis of diagnostic and antimicrobial patterns in R), a software app for infection management, and to ascertain whether RadaR can facilitate user-friendly, intuitive, and interactive analyses of large datasets in the absence of prior in-depth software or programming knowledge.Methods: RadaR was built in the open-source programming language R, using Shiny, an additional package to implement Web-app frameworks in R. It was developed in the context of a 1339-bed academic tertiary referral hospital to handle data of more than 180,000 admissions.Results: RadaR enabled visualization of analytical graphs and statistical summaries in a rapid and interactive manner. It allowed users to filter patient groups by 17 different criteria and investigate antimicrobial use, microbiological diagnostic use and results including antimicrobial resistance, and outcome in length of stay. Furthermore, with RadaR, results can be stratified and grouped to compare defined patient groups on the basis of individual patient features.Conclusions: AMS teams can use RadaR to identify areas within their institutions that might benefit from increased support and targeted interventions. It can be used for the assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and for visualizing and communicating analyses. RadaR demonstrated the feasibility of developing software tools for use in infection management and for AMS teams in an open-source approach, thus making it free to use and adaptable to different settings.
AB - Background: Analyzing process and outcome measures for all patients diagnosed with an infection in a hospital, including those suspected of having an infection, requires not only processing of large datasets but also accounting for numerous patient parameters and guidelines. Substantial technical expertise is required to conduct such rapid, reproducible, and adaptable analyses; however, such analyses can yield valuable insights for infection management and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) teams.Objective: The aim of this study was to present the design, development, and testing of RadaR (Rapid analysis of diagnostic and antimicrobial patterns in R), a software app for infection management, and to ascertain whether RadaR can facilitate user-friendly, intuitive, and interactive analyses of large datasets in the absence of prior in-depth software or programming knowledge.Methods: RadaR was built in the open-source programming language R, using Shiny, an additional package to implement Web-app frameworks in R. It was developed in the context of a 1339-bed academic tertiary referral hospital to handle data of more than 180,000 admissions.Results: RadaR enabled visualization of analytical graphs and statistical summaries in a rapid and interactive manner. It allowed users to filter patient groups by 17 different criteria and investigate antimicrobial use, microbiological diagnostic use and results including antimicrobial resistance, and outcome in length of stay. Furthermore, with RadaR, results can be stratified and grouped to compare defined patient groups on the basis of individual patient features.Conclusions: AMS teams can use RadaR to identify areas within their institutions that might benefit from increased support and targeted interventions. It can be used for the assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and for visualizing and communicating analyses. RadaR demonstrated the feasibility of developing software tools for use in infection management and for AMS teams in an open-source approach, thus making it free to use and adaptable to different settings.
KW - antimicrobial stewardship
KW - software
KW - hospital records
KW - data visualization
KW - infection
KW - medical informatics applications
KW - PROGRAM
KW - IMPROVE
KW - CARE
U2 - 10.2196/12843
DO - 10.2196/12843
M3 - Article
C2 - 31199325
SN - 1438-8871
VL - 21
SP - e12843
JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research
JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research
IS - 6
M1 - 12843
ER -