Software to determine which COVID19 patient needs a ventilator
Using certain parameters, a software determines who needs early access to a ventilator. This will help avoid the panic, like during the second wave where everyone was seeking oxygen and ventilator beds. The software is being used in three COVID care centres in West Bengal.
Patients in the intensive care unit who require ventilator support can be identified by using the software. Photo: Gaon Connection
During the second wave of COVID19 in India, there were SOS calls from across the country seeking hospital beds, oxygen beds and ventilator beds, besides oxygen.
Deciding who gets what had become very difficult. Helping medical personnel identify the severity of patients with corona is the COVID Severity Score software. It uses a set of factors to assess the severity of corona patients. It assesses each patient numerous times with a pre-defined dynamic algorithm and returns a Covid Severity Score (CSS).
This software is currently being used at three community COVID care centres in Kolkata and surrounding areas, including a 100-bed government COVID care centre in Barrackpore.
This facility can help COVID care centres that have only beds and oxygen support. However, there is no facility for invasive ventilation.
The algorithm that measures symptoms, signs and vital parameters and calculates a COVID Severity Score has been developed by the Foundation For Innovations In Health, Kolkata, in collaboration with IIT Guwahati, Kevin Dhaliwal of the University of Edinburgh and Sayantan Bandopadhyay, formerly of the World Health Organization (South East Asia Regional Office). It had support from the Science for Equity, Empowerment, and Development (SEED) division of the Indian government’s Department of Science & Technology.
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Patients in the intensive care unit who require ventilator support can be identified by using the software. Using this to refer the patient in time will help the hospital and doctors make appropriate arrangements before it becomes an emergency situation.
Frontline health workers trained in the National Skill Qualification Framework model and certified by the Government of India’s National Skill Development Corporation are set to record all these parameters on a tablet computer using the software.
The score will be regularly checked by specialist doctors working remotely. This also reduces the requirement that doctors physically visit the patient.
This can also aid in early identification of patients in an intensive care unit who require ventilator support and referral, and minimise hospital referrals to individuals who do not need critical care support. In turn, this would free up hospital beds.
The software would also assist in providing medical monitoring support to patients who cannot afford therapy or cannot isolate at home due to their living conditions, the team said.