Driving life-saving research for ECMO and innovative therapies for support of failing organ systems

The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) is an international non-profit consortium of healthcare centers and physicians who are dedicated to the development, evaluation, and improvement of ECMO and other innovative therapies for support of failing organ systems in the neonate, pediatric, and adult populations. ELSO is focused on the ongoing development of its comprehensive patient registry – the world’s largest source of data on patients receiving ECMO – that aids in continuing education, guidelines development, publications, and device surveillance.

The ELSO community, which includes more than 500 participating centers across 66 countries worldwide, uses the registry to support clinical research, individual ELSO center quality assessment, and regulatory needs for ECMO.

Migrating the ELSO Registry to ArborMetrix

Although ELSO established its registry in 1989, it partnered with ArborMetrix in 2017 to make its big vision for the future of ECMO therapies and patient outcomes a reality. ELSO needed a partner who could use technology to make participating in the registry easy, as well as apply data science and analytics to the data to make participating in the registry valuable.

ArborMetrix led a highly efficient registry migration process for ELSO by leveraging existing data interfaces to get data flowing into the registry, where data now becomes meaningful with advanced analytics and intuitive dashboards available in the registry reporting platform.

Because each ECMO case is unique, data is risk adjusted to account for variations in patient populations and case complexity. ArborMetrix built individual risk adjustment models for each type of ECMO and patient demographic. All of the reports are based on published models so the ELSO community understands and trusts the data underlying the reports in the registry.

Highlights of the ELSO Registry

Varied stakeholders from the community look to ELSO for:

• Tracking safety and effectiveness of procedures and devices in new patient populations (including tracking the off-label use of medical devices for pediatric and neonatal ECMO)
• Using registry data for FDA filings
• Training and certification programs for new ECMO practitioners
• Publishing peer-reviewed research in the field

Featured Research and Publications

1. Outcomes of Infants Supported With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Using Centrifugal Versus Roller Pumps: An Analysis From the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry
2. Predicting Survival of Adult Respiratory Failure Patients Receiving Prolonged (≥14 Days) Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
3. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension
4. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Severe Adenoviral Pneumonia in Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult Patients
5. Laparotomy complications on extracorporeal life support: Surgical site bleeding does not increase mortality
6. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for pertussis: Predictors of outcome including pulmonary hypertension and leukodepletion
7. Bleeding complications and mortality in neonates receiving therapeutic hypothermia and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation