Application of artificial intelligence in COVID-19 medical area: a systematic review

Zhoulin Chang; Zhiqing Zhan; Zifan Zhao; Zhixuan You; Yang Liu; Zhihong Yan; Yong Fu; Wenhua Liang; Lei Zhao

doi:10.21037/jtd-21-747

Application of artificial intelligence in COVID-19 medical area: a systematic review

J Thorac Dis. 2021 Dec;13(12):7034-7053. doi: 10.21037/jtd-21-747.

Authors

Zhoulin Chang^#¹, Zhiqing Zhan^#², Zifan Zhao³, Zhixuan You³, Yang Liu⁴, Zhihong Yan⁵, Yong Fu⁵, Wenhua Liang⁶, Lei Zhao⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangdong University of Science and Technology, Dongguan, China.
² The Third Clinical College, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Nanshan College, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ School of Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁵ Kuangji Medical Technology (Guangdong Hengqin) Co., Ltd., Zhuhai, China.
⁶ Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁷ Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a large-scale global epidemic, impacting international politics and the economy. At present, there is no particularly effective medicine and treatment plan. Therefore, it is urgent and significant to find new technologies to diagnose early, isolate early, and treat early. Multimodal data drove artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially be the option. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, AI provided cutting-edge applications in disease, medicine, treatment, and target recognition. This paper reviewed the literature on the intersection of AI and medicine to analyze and compare different AI model applications in the COVID-19 Pandemic, evaluate their effectiveness, show their advantages and differences, and introduce the main models and their characteristics.

Methods: We searched PubMed, arXiv, medRxiv, and Google Scholar through February 2020 to identify studies on AI applications in the medical areas for the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Results: We summarize the main AI applications in six areas: (I) epidemiology, (II) diagnosis, (III) progression, (IV) treatment, (V) psychological health impact, and (VI) data security. The ongoing development in AI has significantly improved prediction, contact tracing, screening, diagnosis, treatment, medication, and vaccine development for the COVID-19 Pandemic and reducing human intervention in medical practice.

Discussion: This paper provides strong advice for using AI-based auxiliary tools for related applications of human diseases. We also discuss the clinicians' role in the further development of AI. They and AI researchers can integrate AI technology with current clinical processes and information systems into applications. In the future, AI personnel and medical workers will further cooperate closely.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI); coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); deep learning; machine learning; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Publication types

Review