Artificial intelligence (AI) is making inroads in medical settings across the country, and one of the next steps could be using it to predict which COPD patients will be at risk for admission to the ICU.
In an abstract poster published in CHEST, researchers conducted a prospective study at a tertiary care center, enrolling consecutive patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD over a one-year period. Data was collected from those patients and an AI-driven predictive model was developed using machine learning algorithms.
A total of 500 patients were included in the study. Out of those, 150 required admission to the ICU. The researchers wrote: “The AI-driven predictive model demonstrated promising performance in identifying patients at risk of ICU admission.”
The researchers said the findings suggest that AI-driven predictive modeling holds potential for identifying these at-risk patients and that earlier identification “can facilitate prompt triage decisions, timely escalation of care and resource allocation, ultimately improving patient outcomes and health care efficiency.”
In conclusion, the researchers said the predictive tool has potential to greatly benefit emergency departments and respiratory care units to optimize resources and patient treatment in order to better facilitate early interventions and enhance the quality of care while at the same time reducing health care costs.
