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BIGDATA: Causal Inference in Large-Scale Time Series

Award Number: R01LM011826
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/01/2013
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2025

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BIGDATA: Causal Inference in Large-Scale Time Series - Project summary Large datasets generated by hospitals could have a transformative effect on medical knowledge and patient care. Yet currently the volume of data is more likely to overwhelm clinicians and the challenges of the data can overwhelm machine learning algorithms. Intensive care units (ICUs) generate data at a resolution of seconds, for the entirety of a patient's stay. Our long-term goal is to turn these data into actionable knowledge, like risk factors for a disease, early intervention targets, and real-time information to support clinical decisions. This is a broad problem, but particularly important in ICUs, which involve high stakes decisions being made in a complex environment under time pressure. We focus in particular on understanding consciousness in adults, and neurologic status in neonates. While 7% of ICU admissions are due to loss of consciousness, and degree of consciousness is critical to evaluating prognosis, making difficult choices such as when to withdraw care, and providing early interventions to improve quality of life, there are no objective or automated assessments for consciousness (adults) or neurologic status (neonates). We have shown that unresponsive patients with brain activation were twice as likely to regain the ability to follow commands compared to unresponsive patients without such activation, yet these assessments are too time consuming for regular clinical use. However we also showed that physiological data routinely collected in ICUs can be used as a proxy to classify consciousness. It is still not known why it changes and we must be sure that the patterns we find are in fact causal to avoid treating symptoms instead of a disease or launching unsuccessful clinical trials. There have been two key barriers preventing a causal understanding of consciousness. First, variables measured for each ICU patient differ, and can differ within a patient over the course of their admission. This leads to confounding when attempting to infer causal models, and has prevented learning a single model for all patients, which limits generalizability. Second, while the challenges of medical data require new methods, researchers are rarely able to rigorously evaluate and compare them, since real-world data lacks ground truth and often cannot be shared for privacy reasons. To address these challenges, we aim 1) to develop methods that learn generalizable causal models with latent variables (by intelligently sharing and combining information across patients), 2) to develop data driven simulations methods for testing machine learning algorithms while preserving privacy, and 3) to apply these methods to neonatal and neurological ICU data. We aim to create better indicators for consciousness and to uncover causes of both neurological status in ICU and its link to long-term functional outcomes. Our work turns potential weaknesses of medical data (different variables measured across individuals) into a strength, and will enable better use of large-scale observational biomedical data for real-time treatment decisions.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $281,538 )
2024	2024	THE TRUSTEES OF THE STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	1 CASTLEPOINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	001	11	5/10/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$28,154
2024	2024	THE TRUSTEES OF THE STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	1 CASTLEPOINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	11	3/20/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$253,384
														Subtotal = $281,538

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $281,538 )
2023	2023	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	10	2/8/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$281,538
														Subtotal = $281,538

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $281,538 )
2022	2022	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	004	9	2/22/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$281,538
2022	2021	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	003	8	1/12/2022	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$156,151
2022	2021	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	001	8	12/10/2021	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$156,151
2022	2021	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	002	8	1/12/2022	COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$156,151
2022	2019	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	7	12/7/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$156,151
														Subtotal = $281,538

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $295,006 )
2021	2021	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	8	6/1/2021	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$295,006
														Subtotal = $295,006

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $373,050 )
2019	2019	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	7	5/1/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$373,050
														Subtotal = $373,050

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $374,392 )
2018	2018	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	6	5/30/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$374,392
														Subtotal = $374,392

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $372,073 )
2017	2017	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (INC)	1 CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	5	6/1/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$372,073
														Subtotal = $372,073

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $384,627 )
2016	2016	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	4	5/28/2016	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$384,627
														Subtotal = $384,627

Issue Date FY: 2015 ( Subtotal = $206,097 )
2015	2015	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	3	5/19/2015	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$206,097
														Subtotal = $206,097

Issue Date FY: 2014 ( Subtotal = $218,467 )
2014	2014	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	2	5/22/2014	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$212,104
2014	2014	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	001	2	9/13/2014	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$6,363
														Subtotal = $218,467

Issue Date FY: 2013 ( Subtotal = $223,717 )
2013	2013	STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	CASTLE POINT ON HUDSON	HOBOKEN	NJ	07030	HUDSON	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	1	5/29/2013	NEW	$223,717
														Subtotal = $223,717

Grand Total All Awards = $3,292,043

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BIGDATA: Causal Inference in Large-Scale Time Series

Award Number: R01LM011826

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/01/2013

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2025

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