Speja, the research-based platform developed by P3S — Patient Safety Surveillance Solutions, is now going into large-scale clinical operation at a Swedish university hospital. Speja automatically identifies patient harm events — such as sepsis, healthcare-associated infections, and surgical complications — in patient data, giving healthcare staff daily statistics down to the ward level, instead of one-off measurements taken once a year.
The Rollout
The rollout comes as the Swedish government has tasked the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) and the Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten) with developing a national structure for monitoring patient harm and healthcare-associated infections, with a particular focus on digitalisation and automation.
Tobias Tovedal, CEO of P3S, described the shift in dialogue with healthcare providers: “In conversations with healthcare providers, we see a strong need to move from one-off measurements to continuous follow-up. With our solution, healthcare staff get entirely new opportunities to work data-driven and proactively with patient safety. We are very pleased that Karolinska University Hospital has chosen our platform.”
Sepsis: One of Healthcare’s Deadliest Complications
In Sweden, around 40,000 people fall ill with sepsis every year, and more than 6,000 die from it. Early detection is critical for survival, but sepsis is notoriously difficult to catch through routine follow-up, since cases often aren’t visible until well after the fact.
Speja identifies sepsis cases automatically in healthcare data, making it possible to track developments day by day, down to individual wards. “Sepsis is a clear example of why the pace of follow-up matters. The faster a healthcare provider sees where problems are occurring, the faster they can implement measures that actually make a difference for patients,” Tovedal said.
The Technology
Speja automatically analyses patient data to identify patient harm events, including sepsis, surgical complications, and healthcare-associated infections, built on validated algorithms and extensive research data.
The platform’s foundation is the national Vinnova project VRI Proaktiv, with a budget of SEK 68 million. Within that project, a database was built using information from more than 20 million care episodes — the dataset underpinning the algorithms now used to monitor and identify patient harm.
Unlike traditional methods, which rely on manual chart review or annual point-prevalence measurements, Speja provides daily updates down to ward level. “Healthcare providers get an entirely different statistical basis, where they can identify risks faster and implement measures where they do the most good,” Tovedal said.
The Scale of the Problem
Each year, around 100,000 patients in Sweden are affected by patient harm, leading to suffering, longer hospital stays, and significant costs. Healthcare-associated infections account for a substantial share of this and are estimated to cost society several billion Swedish kronor annually.
The government has also noted that current follow-up methods are resource-intensive and that there is a clear need for greater digitalisation and automation. “This solution is perfectly timed for healthcare providers who want to both use and develop new tools to strengthen the healthcare system’s capacity and efficiency,” Tovedal said.
From Pilot to Clinical Operation
Speja is currently used in pilot projects at several hospitals in Sweden. With its rollout at Karolinska University Hospital, the platform takes the step from pilot to large-scale clinical use.
P3S is early in its journey, with the ambition of making automated patient-harm surveillance a new standard in healthcare, both in Sweden and internationally. “The potential is enormous. If we can identify and prevent more instances of patient harm in time, we can both save lives and free up significant resources in healthcare,” Tovedal said.
About P3S
P3S — Patient Safety Surveillance Solutions develops Speja, a research-based platform for automated surveillance and follow-up of patient harm. The solution has its foundation in the national Vinnova project VRI Proaktiv. P3S receives business support from Uminova Innovation.
