How The New AI Model For Rapid COVID-19 Screening Works?

With the current pandemic spreading like wildfire, the requirement for a faster diagnosis can not be more critical than now. As a matter of fact, the traditional real-time polymerase chain reaction testing (RT-PCR) using the nose and throat swab has not only been termed to have limited sensitivity but also time-consuming for operational reasons. Thus, to expedite the process of COVID-19 diagnosis, researchers from the University of Oxford developed two early-detection AI models leveraging the routine data collected from clinical reports. In a recent paper, the Oxford researchers revealed the two AI models and highlighted its effectiveness in screening the virus in patients coming for checkups to the hospital -- for an emergency checkup or for admitting in the hospital. To validate these real-time prediction models, researchers used primary clinical data, including lab tests of the patients, their vital signs and their blood reports.