A team led by the University of Oxford is looking to develop potential algorithms which could help diagnose Covid-19 pneumonia.

GE Healthcare is also working with the National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging (NCIMI) in the UK on the programme, which also aims to predict which patients will develop severe respiratory distress, a key cause of mortality in patients who develop Covid-19 pneumonia, and which patients might develop longer term lung function problems.

At present, clinicians cannot easily predict which patients who test positive for Covid-19 will deteriorate and require hospital admission for oxygen and possible ventilation.

It is also not clear which patients will suffer long-term consequences from the lung damage.

The consortium aims to develop algorithms incorporating data from thousands of patients medical imaging, laboratory and clinical observations to provide both a quicker diagnosis and a prediction of how a patient may progress and recover.

Professor Fergus Gleeson, consultant radiologist and professor of radiology at the University of Oxford, said: “It would be extremely valuable to predict at a relatively early stage in the disease which patients will do well, which are at risk of imminent deterioration and should be admitted to ICU as they will need more intensive support, and which are at higher risk of delayed deterioration and need to be actively monitored.

Source: www.digitalhealth.net