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Ascom people: the power behind your solutions is a new series of blogs showcasing some of the amazing Ascom employees making safer, more efficient workflows a reality worldwide. In this initial installment, you get to meet Dr. Ariana Cordos, and how her rare skillsets are helping to optimize the benefits of Ascom healthcare solutions.
We live in so-called ‘knowledge economies’… but all too often, knowledge in the form of objective, useful data can be surprisingly hard to come by. This scarcity of hard facts extends even to healthcare environments—where all too often practices and decisions are based on outdated models, assumptions or ‘guesstimates.’
Rectifying the data deficit has for the past four years been Dr. Ariana Cordos’ task as a key member of Ascom’s Evidence Generation team. At first glance it sounds like a straightforward job: visit a hospital that has installed an Ascom communications and/or alarm management solution, collect data on the solution’s performance, translate that data into meaningful information that feeds back into an improvement loop for Ascom and its customers. What could be easier?
But as Ariana says from her base in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, when it comes to data generation, nothing is straightforward. “Collecting data in healthcare environments is uniquely challenging,” she says, “for the simple reason that we are working in spaces dedicated to helping and healing people.
Unlike a factory where you can install a machine and check results months later, hospitals require a different approach. You need to assess the baseline before installation, define KPIs, and then return after implementation to measure outcomes and confirm whether the expected impact was achieved.”
The obstacles to be negotiated by Ariana and her colleagues include everything from bureaucracy to logistics, from legal constraints to technical hurdles. “Actually,” says Ariana, “one of our main problems is timing. Obviously, we require ‘before’ data. But to gather this we of course need the hospital’s buy-in—and a million details in place—well before the Ascom solution is installed. So, generating data takes a lot of cooperation over an extended timeframe, not just with the hospital’s management and staff, but also with our own colleagues. It requires meticulous planning.”
Although the vast bulk of the data is gathered from Ascom devices and servers, the process of generating evidence requires some on-site presence by the Data Generation team. “We still gather useful data by physically shadowing staff, and by minutely analyzing their actions. For example, we count the steps the number of steps it takes them to go from room to room. We count the seconds it takes them to perform different activities.” This granular approach is complemented by the use of well-established questionnaires to gather data on topics such as alarm fatigue and work-related burnout. “The bottom line,” says Ariana, “is that we assemble a data-rich picture – but with zero impact on the facility's activities and the solution's functionality."
As a midwife, I truly learned what direct patient care is all about—and developed a deep understanding of the demands and pressures faced by today’s frontline clinicians.
Running data generation projects in healthcare demands a lot from those involved. They have to have people skills; have to be able to negotiate with a broad range of roles. They, of course, have to have a good grasp of the technologies involved. They must know their way around sometimes labyrinthine regulations. Not least, they need to understand how clinicians think and behave in today’s healthcare settings—and know what’s important to them.
It’s a seemingly impossible combination of competencies to expect from one person. Fortunately, Ariana’s background has given her a spectrum of necessary skills. Hailing from a family with a background in the arts, Ariana’s undergraduate degree was in midwifery science. “Studying and practicing midwifery is unbelievably rewarding. On an emotional level, one is helping to safeguard the health of newborns and mothers. Then there’s the professional grounding it provides. One truly learns what direct patient care is all about—and develops a deep understanding of the demands and pressures faced by today’s frontline clinicians.”
The next step in Ariana’s professional journey saw her take an MSc in biostatistics and bioinformatics. It may sound like an unusual step for a qualified midwife. But as Ariana explains, studying for the degree was a logical progression given her growing interest in rigorous medical research and complex data analysis. “I became,” she explains, “more and more interested in the intersection of clinical practice and clinical data. Midwifery gave me the practical bedrock, working for the MSc gave me the skills to handle large datasets and apply statistical models to real clinical problems.”
Indeed, so interested was she in the nexus between practice and data, that she decided to pursue a PhD in the field, gaining her doctorate in 2019. “It was of course challenging” she says, “but I was—and am—firmly convinced that the use of biostatistics can dramatically improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.” As a case in point, she points to the revolutionary potential of AI. “We are,” she says, “at the beginning of a truly transformative phase in healthcare—and data is its driving force.”
Hospitals require absolutely trustworthy data that is gathered from the system as it is actually used—not from a lab setting, or a digital model, or from a vendor’s projections.
But how is data generation benefitting hospitals in the here and now? Ariana’s answer is short and powerful: “it gives them certainty.” What she means is that all too often the impact of a technical investment is measured in vague or subjective terms. For instance, staff may report that responding to alerts ‘feels’ faster and easier following the installation of a new system. That may very well be the case. But it’s hardly the solid data that hospital managers can call on when planning new investments, or assessing the effectiveness of significant capital expenditures.
“What hospitals require,” adds Ariana, “is absolutely trustworthy data that is gathered from the system as it is actually used—not from a lab setting, or a digital model, or from a vendor’s projections.” To illustrate her point, she refers to last year’s data generation project at the ICU at Central Ostrobothnian Central Hospital (CH) in Kokkola, Finland. Like many hospitals, CH is moving away from open ICU layouts to single-patient rooms. “Single ICU rooms,” explains Ariana, “offer tremendous benefits for patients, giving them a sort of healing cocoon that can significantly cut the length of their stays in the ICU.”
However, every action has a reaction. And with single-patient ICU rooms, that reaction is often increased patient exposure to prolonged and loud noise from the array of alarms and alert notifications typically found in modern ICUs. Also, staff have to be able to receive alarm notifications, even when they can’t see patients. Ironically, 85 -90% of all ICU alarm notifications are non-critical—they don’t require immediate staff intervention. Anything that can quietly yet reliably filter and distribute alerts to staff is key to reducing noise, to the benefit of patients and staff alike.
When in 2024 CH replaced its five-bed open ICU with seven single-patient rooms, it took the opportunity to deploy an advanced Ascom Clinical Alarm and Alert Management solution—and Ariana and the Data Generation team was informed. “Fortunately, we were involved at an early stage says Ariana. “Another positive factor was the hospital’s enthusiastic embrace of the data-gathering exercise. The ward management were of course keen to see how the solution improved some key metrics, and they extended us every possible assistance.”
When the project’s findings were published in early 2025, the data supported one incontrovertible fact: After installing the Ascom solution, the proportion of louder alarm notifications above 50dB at patients’ bedsides decreased from 56% to 24%, contributing to a quieter environment.
The Ascom solution resulted in 6% of notifications recorded during the day (8:00 – 20:00) being well below 40dB—an important move towards the ICU noise level of around 40dB recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Finally, a rigorous analysis of filtered alarm data showed that over a 30-day period, the Ascom solution reduced by 80% the number of non-actionable alarm notifications from patient monitors reaching nurses, from 32,000 to only to only 4,800 alerts.
“These are excellent results,” says Ariana. “They prove that the solution is working, and that it is delivering an improved healing environment for patients, and a better workplace for ICU staff.” But she is also keen to stress that data generation provides so much more than proof of performance. That’s because the wealth of data gathered by her team also shows where and how the solution can be optimized, both in the subject hospital’s deployment, and also for future Ascom systems. “It’s really quite simple,” adds Ariana in conclusion. “Solution optimization is a non-stop process, and personally, I’m thrilled to help generate and analyze the data that fuels it.”
