New Tool for Assessing Dehydration Is Built for Global Deployment

UF Health researchers teamed up with Brown University and researchers in Bangladesh to create FluidCalc, a tool that utilizes an algorithm to determine a patient’s dehydration and calculates how much fluid they need. This tool is aimed at treating dehydration caused by diarrhea, which kills more than 1 million people each year. Until now, there hasn’t been an easy-to-use tool for assessing dehydration.

Eric J. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor with UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions and the UF College of Medicine’s department of pediatrics said the tool’s hallmark trait is its accuracy.

“There’s a lot less left to chance if you have an evidence-based algorithm doing this instead of trying to determine each patient’s needs.” Nelson said.

FluidCalc was tested in Bangladesh and will continue testing in Tanzania. A long-term goal of the project is to get the WHO to change their guidelines for diarrhea-related dehydration, as FluidCalc has outperformed them in detecting severe dehydration.

Read more: New Tool for Assessing Dehydration Is Built for Global Deployment.