William A. Knaus

Research involves the accurate description of patients in terms of the severity of their acute illness combined with a comprehensive assessment of primary disease, age, and chronic health status. We are the developers of the APACHE (Acute Physiology, Age, and Chronic Health Evaluation) Prognostic Scoring System. Major objectives of our work are to forecast or anticipate the likelihood of a patient surviving an acute illness and/or benefiting from proposed therapy. We have had extensive experience within infectious disease applications, specifically on using clinically accurate databases to build computerized models of patient outcome from sepsis (JAMA 1993;270:1233). These models are used prospectively within clinical trials and other evaluations to control for potential confounding patient characteristics so that the signal from new therapeutic approaches might be more accurately and consistently detected. Infectious disease fellows would be able to work with us by accessing our databases and learning what the major determinants of outcome are from specific infectious diseases. They would be able to use this information to help design and interpret clinical research and to facilitate the transition of basic research findings to clinical applications.