From predictions to prescriptions: A data-driven response to COVID-19

Health Care Manag Sci. 2021 Jun;24(2):253-272. doi: 10.1007/s10729-020-09542-0. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges worldwide. Strained healthcare providers make difficult decisions on patient triage, treatment and care management on a daily basis. Policy makers have imposed social distancing measures to slow the disease, at a steep economic price. We design analytical tools to support these decisions and combat the pandemic. Specifically, we propose a comprehensive data-driven approach to understand the clinical characteristics of COVID-19, predict its mortality, forecast its evolution, and ultimately alleviate its impact. By leveraging cohort-level clinical data, patient-level hospital data, and census-level epidemiological data, we develop an integrated four-step approach, combining descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics. First, we aggregate hundreds of clinical studies into the most comprehensive database on COVID-19 to paint a new macroscopic picture of the disease. Second, we build personalized calculators to predict the risk of infection and mortality as a function of demographics, symptoms, comorbidities, and lab values. Third, we develop a novel epidemiological model to project the pandemic's spread and inform social distancing policies. Fourth, we propose an optimization model to re-allocate ventilators and alleviate shortages. Our results have been used at the clinical level by several hospitals to triage patients, guide care management, plan ICU capacity, and re-distribute ventilators. At the policy level, they are currently supporting safe back-to-work policies at a major institution and vaccine trial location planning at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and have been integrated into the US Center for Disease Control's pandemic forecast.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiological modeling; Machine learning; Optimization.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • COVID-19 Drug Treatment*
  • COVID-19* / mortality
  • COVID-19* / physiopathology
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Forecasting
  • Humans
  • Intensive Care Units
  • Machine Learning*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Models, Statistical
  • Pandemics
  • Policy Making
  • Prognosis
  • Risk Assessment / statistics & numerical data
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Ventilators, Mechanical / supply & distribution