Innocens is ICT Project Of the Year 2023 According to DataNews

Antwerp, 2023. Innocens has been awarded the ICT/Digital Project of the Year by Data News, recognizing the development of a clinical decision support system designed to flag impending complications in premature infants on the neonatal intensive care unit.

The award recognizes completed digital projects that demonstrate genuine added value through innovative use of technology, across both private and public sectors. From dozens of submissions, the Data News editorial team shortlisted seven projects whose owners presented to a jury. In the large projects category, the BRUCE project by i-City for the City of Brussels took the award. In the small projects category, the award went to Innocens.

The clinical problem

Bacterial infections are common in extremely premature infants in neonatal ICUs, but they are often identified only at a later stage, when the clinical picture has already deteriorated and treatment becomes more complex. Today, the recognition of these infections still relies heavily on clinical judgment at the bedside, with limited support from the continuous data already being generated around each patient.

That data holds rich clinical information - patterns, signals, evolving status - that can remain invisible without the right infrastructure. This is where Innocens comes in.

The approach

Intellicens Neo uses machine learning to analyze the continuous clinical data collected on neonatal ICU patients, surfacing early signs of bacterial infection so the clinical team has more time to act. The development represented over 7 person-years of work and a total budget of more than €1 million.

Technically, the solution runs on an on-premise edge infrastructure, with the underlying clinical model developed entirely in-house by the Innocens team. The first hospital integration, at UZ Antwerpen, went live in June 2021.

Clinical roots

What the jury highlighted was the clinical origin of the project. Founder and CEO David Van Laere is a former neonatal intensive care specialist, and the project reflects a clear ambition to translate clinical need - observed at the bedside - into infrastructure that supports the team caring for these patients.

Earlier visibility means more time to act. For the smallest patients in the hospital, that matters.