# SepAl: Sepsis Alerts On Low Power Wearables With Digital Biomarkers and On-Device Tiny Machine Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.08316 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08316/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 31 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [An Empirical Evaluation of Generic Convolutional and Recurrent Networks for Sequence Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.01271/) (2018)
- [A Comprehensive Survey of Neural Architecture Search: Challenges and Solutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.02903/) (2020)
- [TensorFlow Lite Micro: Embedded Machine Learning on TinyML Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08678/) (2020)
- [CMSIS-NN: Efficient Neural Network Kernels for Arm Cortex-M CPUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.06601/) (2018)
- [HiRID-ICU-Benchmark -- A Comprehensive Machine Learning Benchmark on High-resolution ICU Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.08536/) (2021)
- [Machine Learning for Microcontroller-Class Hardware: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.14550/) (2022)
- [MGP-AttTCN: An Interpretable Machine Learning Model for the Prediction of Sepsis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12637/) (2019)
- [Cross-hospital Sepsis Early Detection via Semi-supervised Optimal Transport with Self-paced Ensemble](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10352/) (2021)
- [Not to Cry Wolf: Distantly Supervised Multitask Learning in Critical Care](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05027/) (2018)
- [Accelerometric Method for Cuffless Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.07899/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [LD-RPMNet: Near-Sensor Diagnosis for Railway Point Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06346/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Sepsis is a lethal syndrome of organ dysfunction that is triggered by an infection and claims 11 million lives per year globally. Prognostic algorithms based on deep learning have shown promise in detecting the onset of sepsis hours before the actual event but use a large number of bio-markers, including vital signs and laboratory tests. The latter makes the deployment of such systems outside hospitals or in resource-limited environments extremely challenging. This paper introduces SepAl, an energy-efficient and lightweight neural network, using only data from low-power wearable sensors, such as photoplethysmography (PPG), inertial measurement units (IMU), and body temperature sensors, designed to deliver alerts in real-time. SepAl leverages only six digitally acquirable vital signs and tiny machine learning algorithms, enabling on-device real-time sepsis prediction. SepAl uses a lightweight temporal convolution neural network capable of providing sepsis alerts with a median predicted time to sepsis of 9.8 hours. The model has been fully quantized, being able to be deployed on any low-power processors, and evaluated on an ARM Cortex-M33 core. Experimental evaluations show an inference efficiency of 0.11MAC/Cycle and a latency of 143ms, with an energy per inference of 2.68mJ. This work aims at paving the way toward accurate disease prediction, deployable in a long-lasting multi-vital sign wearable device, suitable for providing sepsis onset alerts at the point of care. The code used in this work has been open-sourced and is available at https://github.com/mgiordy/sepsis-prediction