Intensive and critical care medicine focuses on the most vital moments in healthcare, where specialized teams monitor and support patients with life-threatening conditions. This field bridges the gap between emergency intervention and recovery, utilizing advanced technology to manage organ failure, severe infections, and complex trauma. It is a dynamic landscape where split-second decisions can determine survival, constantly evolving through rigorous research and real-world clinical experience.

Gist.Science tracks the latest developments in this critical arena by processing every new preprint from medRxiv as soon as it is published. We transform these raw scientific reports into both plain-language explanations for general readers and detailed technical summaries for medical professionals, ensuring that groundbreaking findings are understood and accessible immediately. Below are the latest papers in intensive care and critical care medicine, curated to keep you informed of the newest insights shaping patient survival and recovery.

Development and validation of a dynamic risk stratification tool for predicting multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in ICU patients: A clinical prediction model and web-based calculator

This study developed and validated a dynamic, interpretable web-based calculator using five routinely collected clinical indicators to accurately predict multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in ICU patients, thereby facilitating real-time risk stratification and targeted antimicrobial stewardship.

Ye, L., Lyu, B., Yang, Q., Mou, X., Nawawonganun, R., Laohasiriwong, W.2026-05-26📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Pre-admission polypharmacy burden and intensive care unit outcomes in patients with sepsis: A retrospective cohort study using the MIMIC-IV-ED linked database

This retrospective cohort study utilizing the MIMIC-IV-ED database demonstrates that high pre-admission polypharmacy (≥10 medications) serves as an independent predictor of increased ICU and 28-day mortality in sepsis patients, offering immediate prognostic value and highlighting specific high-risk drug interactions for targeted clinical intervention.

Haque, F., Hasan, M.2026-05-15📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Multicohort development and validation of a machine learning model to predict six-month functional traumatic brain injury outcomes in a large national registry

This study developed and validated a random forest machine learning model using data from two clinical trials to accurately predict six-month functional outcomes for moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury patients, subsequently applying it to a large national registry to estimate population-level recovery patterns despite the registry's lack of systematic follow-up.

Vattipally, V. N., Jillala, R. R., Kramer, P., Elshareif, M., Singh, S., Jo, J., Suarez, J. I., Sakran, J. V., Haut, E. R., Huang, J., Bettegowda, C., Azad, T. D.2026-04-27📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

The Visual Hemofilter: a novel visualization technology that improves task performance among intensive care professionals: A prospective simulation study.

In a prospective simulation study involving 26 intensive care professionals, the novel Visual Hemofilter visualization tool was found to significantly improve decision accuracy, speed, confidence, and cognitive workload compared to conventional methods when managing regional citrate anticoagulation in hemofiltration.

Bider-Lunkiewicz, J., Gasciauskaite, G., Rück Perez, B., Braun, J., Willms, J., Szekessy, H., Nöthiger, C., Hoffmann, M., Milovanovic, P., Keller, E., Tscholl, D. W.2026-04-20📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Observation-process features are associated with larger domain shift in sepsis mortality prediction: a cross-database evaluation using MIMIC-IV and eICU-CRD

This study demonstrates that while incorporating observation-process features like measurement counts improves internal discrimination in sepsis mortality prediction models, it significantly exacerbates domain shift and degrades external calibration and transportability across different ICU databases.

Yamamoto, R., Wu, F., Sprehe, L. K., Abeer, A., Celi, L. A., Tohyama, T.2026-04-06📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Inter-individual variability in lipoprotein proteomics reveals distinct patient clusters informative for disease pathogenesis and severity

This study analyzes lipoprotein proteomics in over 1,000 sepsis patients to identify three distinct sub-phenotypes reflecting disease severity and mortality, ultimately developing a validated quantitative score and machine learning models to enable precision medicine approaches for lipoprotein-based therapeutics.

Nguyen, M., Timouma, S., Qin, H., Mi, Y., Hinds, C., McKechnie, S., Gautier, T., Knight, J. C.2026-03-27📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Evaluation of SOFA-2 Score Performance Across Demographic Subgroups: An External Validation Study Using MIMIC-IV

This external validation study of the SOFA-2 score in the MIMIC-IV database reveals that while the model performs acceptably overall for predicting ICU mortality, its discrimination significantly declines with advancing age and among non-English speakers, highlighting critical demographic disparities that necessitate routine equity evaluations before widespread clinical implementation.

Ellen, J. G., Hao, S., Gao, C. A., Arias, M. D. P., Viola, M., Wong, A.-K. I., Mattie, H., Parker, W., Haidau, C., Matos, J., Chaves, R. C. d. F., Celi, L. A.2026-03-11📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Efficacy of external diaphragm pacing combined with high-flow oxygen via tracheostomy for weaning in patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

This randomized controlled trial protocol outlines a study in a Chinese rehabilitation hospital to evaluate whether combining external diaphragm pacing with high-flow oxygen via tracheostomy improves weaning outcomes and mitigates ventilator-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction in adult patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Yang, L., Zheng, K., Li, N., Xing, K., Zhang, J.2026-03-09📄 intensive care and critical care medicine

Characterizing Autonomic Dysfunction during Resuscitation in Sepsis using Multiscale Entropy

This retrospective study demonstrates that Multiscale Entropy (MSE) features derived from heart rate variability during the first 24 hours of ICU admission predict 7-day mortality and 28-day organ dysfunction in sepsis patients with significantly higher accuracy than traditional severity of illness scores, particularly in those requiring vasopressors.

Krishnan, P., Sikora, A., Murray, B., Ali, A., Podgoreanu, M., Upadhyaya, P., Gent, A., CHOUDHARY, T., Holder, A. L., Esper, A., Kamaleswaran, R.2026-03-05📄 intensive care and critical care medicine