Hospital labs and doctors on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic could soon add a new arrow to the quiver of the testing toolkit, namely Artificial Intelligence. A recent study by researchers at the University of Vermont in the US and Cedars-Sinai describes the performance of Biocogniv’s new AI-COVID software. The research team found high precision in predicting the likelihood of Covid-19 infection using routine blood tests, which can help hospitals reduce the number of patients referred for scarce PCR tests.
“Nine months after this pandemic, we now have a better understanding of how to care for Covid-19 patients,” said lead author and assistant professor at the University of Vermont, Timothy Plante, MD, MHS, “but there is still a big bottleneck in Covid -19 diagnosis with PCR test. ”The PCR test is the current standard diagnosis for COVID-19 and requires specific sampling, such as a nasal or throat swab, and specialized laboratory equipment to function.
Since both the complete blood count and complete metabolic panels are common lab tests often requested by emergency departments to gain insight into other systems, the researchers managed to train their AI model to analyze changes in these routine tests. and assign a probability of the patient being Covid-19 negative with high precision.
Biocogniv COO Tanya Kanigan, Ph.D. says, “Based on data from more than 100 US hospitals, the national average response time for COVID-19 tests requested in emergency rooms is longer than 24 hours, away from the one hour goal. Turn back. “
“AI-COVID takes a few seconds to generate its informational result once these blood tests return, which can then be incorporated by the lab into their interpretation of the test,” says Jennifer Joe, MD, an emergency physician in Boston, Mass. And medical director of Biocogniv. “In an efficient emergency department that prioritizes these routine blood tests, the door-to-result time could be less than an hour.”
Biocogniv CEO Artur Adib, Ph.D., says: “I am honored to have such an impressive team of medical scientists from the University of Vermont and Cedars-Sinai as collaborators in validating this timely model. AI has progressed considerably, the time is now to harness this powerful tool for new advancements in healthcare, and we are pleased to direct it to help laboratories and hospital providers combat the current COVID-19 crisis. “
The study was published online in the Journal of Medical Internet Research and is available online at https://www.jmir.org/2020/12/e24048.