CURIAL STUDY uses AI to screen Emergency Department patients for COVID-19 Oxford scientists specialising in infectious diseases and clinical machine learning developed an artificial intelligence (AI) test to rapidly screen for COVID-19 in patients arriving at our Emergency Departments at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. The test assesses data routinely collected during the first hour in Emergency Departments, such as blood tests and vital signs, to determine in near real time the chance of a patient testing positive for COVID-19.
David Clifton, Professor of Clinical Machine Learning in the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, says: “This project is a great example of what can be done, and at very great pace, to fast-track the development of technologies to help in the current pandemic – and to increase the resilience of the country’s healthcare system for any future events.”
Results of the CURIAL Study, published in December 2020, showed that the AI test correctly predicted the COVID-19 status of 92.3% of patients coming to our Emergency Departments during a two-week test period. The CURIAL AI test offers clinical teams the potential to rapidly and confidently rule out a diagnosis of COVID-19 for a large majority of the patients who do not have the infection, while identifying patients at higher risk of testing positive. The higher-risk patients can then be cared for in clinical areas with additional infection control precautions while swab test results are awaited.
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