Mercy Health – St. Rita’s Medical Center announced the launch of a new Ceribell Rapid EEG Brain Monitoring program to ensure optimal care is provided for critically ill patients. The Rapid EEG is the first of its kind and provides a vital sign for brain function. Using the new system, St. Rita’s clinicians now have immediate access to EEG information so as to triage at-risk patients in just 5-minutes and monitor patients for treatment optimization.
“St. Rita’s is pleased to be the first in the region to ensure high risk patients receive the care they need when they need it,” said Ronda Lehman, president, Mercy Health – Lima. “With this new program St. Rita’s team of expert clinicians will have the diagnostic information they need to make informed treatment decisions to ensure the best outcomes for our patients and their families.”
“The neuroscience and critical care teams at SRMC believe that ‘time is brain’ not only applies to stroke but also when dealing with seizure and anoxic brain injury after cardiac arrest,” added Dr. Akram Shhadeh, interventional neurologist and medical director of the St. Rita’s stroke program. “Creibell is a great addition to the already existing tremendous brain saving infrastructures and teams that will enable us to quickly diagnose and treat the time-sensitive and life-threatening abnormal brain electrical discharges (seizure).”
Critically ill patients are at high risk for seizures. The majority of these patients experience a type of seizure that shows no outward signs (non-convulsive) and can only be detected using EEG. If prolonged, non-convulsive seizures can lead to permanent brain injury, higher risk of morbidity and mortality, and longer hospital stay.
As a result, guidelines from the Neurocritical Care Society recommend EEG should be initiated within 15-60 minutes when these seizures are suspected. In addition, the American Heart Association 2020 guidelines for post cardiac arrest patients require prompt EEG for seizure diagnosis.
Meeting these guidelines in the past has proven difficult due to the limitations of conventional EEG systems, which were not designed for use in emergency situations. The Ceribell Rapid EEG Brain Monitoring system was developed to address limitations in EEG acquisition and interpretation so patients at risk of seizure can be triaged more quickly.
The device consists of a simple headband, pocket-sized recorder with intuitive software, and an on-line portal for remote viewing. Using the Ceribell system, physicians can review EEG data, assess response to treatment and optimize care, all in real-time.
"Ceribell founders saw that critically ill patients often experience undiagnosed non-convulsive seizure as a result of lack of access to EEG. Some suffered major neurological deficits while others simply didn't make it. It is our mission to ensure no patients suffer unnecessary brain injury as a result of not having prompt EEG. We are excited to see visionary pioneer health care practitioners at Mercy Health – St. Rita’s Medical Center adopting the technology and transforming their EEG capability," said Jane Chao, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of Ceribell.