New Grant: Predicting, Preventing Surgery Cancellations with Machine Learning

Nick Pratap, MB, BChir, of Cincinnati Children's Department of Anesthesia and the Heart Institute and Yizhao Ni, PhD, of the Division of Biomedical Informatics have received a 300,000, two-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that aims to use electronic health records (EHRs) to identify children likely to suffer last-minute surgery cancellation. Their efforts will contribute to other initiatives across the hospital already aiming to reduce such cancellations. Every year, between two and twenty percent of surgical procedures are cancelled at the last minute in America, wasting thousands of dollars per procedure. In addition, the cancellation of a procedure creates psychological stress and financial hardships for patient and family alike. Already Pratap has led quality improvement efforts at Cincinnati Children's to reduce cancellation by about 16% through use of text-message reminders and clearer pre-operative instructions for families.