MEF: Multidimensional Examination Framework for Prioritization of COVID-19 Severe Patients and Promote Precision Medicine Based on Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approaches

Karrar Hameed Abdulkareem; Mohammed Nasser Al-Mhiqani; Ahmed M Dinar; Mazin Abed Mohammed; Mustafa Jawad Al-Imari; Alaa S Al-Waisy; Abed Saif Alghawli; Mohammed A A Al-Qaness

doi:10.3390/bioengineering9090457

MEF: Multidimensional Examination Framework for Prioritization of COVID-19 Severe Patients and Promote Precision Medicine Based on Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approaches

Bioengineering (Basel). 2022 Sep 8;9(9):457. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering9090457.

Authors

Karrar Hameed Abdulkareem^{1

2}, Mohammed Nasser Al-Mhiqani³, Ahmed M Dinar⁴, Mazin Abed Mohammed⁵, Mustafa Jawad Al-Imari⁶, Alaa S Al-Waisy⁷, Abed Saif Alghawli⁸, Mohammed A A Al-Qaness^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ College of Agriculture, Al-Muthanna University, Samawah 66001, Iraq.
² College of Engineering, University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa, Karbala 56001, Iraq.
³ Center for Advanced Computing Technology, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Malacca 75300, Malaysia.
⁴ Computer Engineering Department, University of Technology- Iraq, Baghdad 19006, Iraq.
⁵ College of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Anbar, Anbar 31001, Iraq.
⁶ Department of Medical Laboratory Techniques, Al-Mustaqbal University College, Hillah 51001, Iraq.
⁷ Computer Technologies Engineering Department, Information Technology Collage, Imam Ja'afar Al-Sadiq University, Baghdad 10064, Iraq.
⁸ Computer Science Department, College of Sciences and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Aflaj 16278, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ College of Physics and Electronic Information Engineering, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China.
¹⁰ Faculty of Engineering, Sana'a University, Sana'a 12544, Yemen.

Abstract

Effective prioritization plays critical roles in precision medicine. Healthcare decisions are complex, involving trade-offs among numerous frequently contradictory priorities. Considering the numerous difficulties associated with COVID-19, approaches that could triage COVID-19 patients may help in prioritizing treatment and provide precise medicine for those who are at risk of serious disease. Prioritizing a patient with COVID-19 depends on a variety of examination criteria, but due to the large number of these biomarkers, it may be hard for medical practitioners and emergency systems to decide which cases should be given priority for treatment. The aim of this paper is to propose a Multidimensional Examination Framework (MEF) for the prioritization of COVID-19 severe patients on the basis of combined multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. In contrast to the existing literature, the MEF has not considered only a single dimension of the examination factors; instead, the proposed framework included different multidimensional examination criteria such as demographic, laboratory findings, vital signs, symptoms, and chronic conditions. A real dataset that consists of data from 78 patients with different examination criteria was used as a base in the construction of Multidimensional Evaluation Matrix (MEM). The proposed framework employs the CRITIC (CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) method to identify objective weights and importance for multidimensional examination criteria. Furthermore, the VIKOR (VIekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje) method is utilized to prioritize COVID-19 severe patients. The results based on the CRITIC method showed that the most important examination criterion for prioritization is COVID-19 patients with heart disease, followed by cough and nasal congestion symptoms. Moreover, the VIKOR method showed that Patients 8, 3, 9, 59, and 1 are the most urgent cases that required the highest priority among the other 78 patients. Finally, the proposed framework can be used by medical organizations to prioritize the most critical COVID-19 patient that has multidimensional examination criteria and to promptly give appropriate care for more precise medicine.

Keywords: COVID-19; CRITIC; Multidimensional Examination Framework; VIKOR; hybrid multi-criteria decision-making; precision medicine; prioritization.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.