Effect of prophylactic noninvasive oxygen therapy after planned extubation on extubation failure in high-risk patients: a retrospective propensity score-matched cohort study.

Background: Extubation failure (EF) is common in the intensive care unit (ICU) and is associated with poor prognosis, especially in high-risk patients. However, the efficacy of prophylactic noninvasive oxygen therapy (NIT), including noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), in reducing EF in high-risk patients remains controversial. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effect of post-extubation prophylactic NIT on EF in high-risk patients. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study conducted in the ICU from March 2018 to December 2023. We included adult patients at high risk for reintubation who were mechanically ventilated for over 24 h and successfully passed the spontaneous breathing trial (SBT). Immediately after extubation, patients underwent NIT or conventional oxygenation therapy (COT). The primary outcome was the EF rate within 7 days after extubation. Results: There were 440 patients in the NIT group and 274 in the COT group. After propensity-score matching, 227 subjects were enrolled in each group. NIT reduced the rate of EF (18.0% vs. 34.3%, p < 0.001) and reintubation (10.5% vs. 18.2% p = 0.003) compared with COT, which was confirmed in propensity-matched cohort (17.6% vs. 32.2%, p < 0.001; 11.5% vs. 19.8%, p = 0.014). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that prophylactic NIT (p = 0.001) and higher ROX index (p = 0.022) were associated with reduced risk of EF. While higher fluid balance (p = 0.013), higher RSBI (p < 0.001), and the occurrence of delirium (p = 0.032) may be the risk factors for EF. Subgroup analysis showed that post-extubation NIT was more effective in elderly patients, and HFNC was non-inferior to NIV in reducing EF. While HFNC had a tendency to reduce the incidence of delirium. Conclusion: Post-extubation prophylactic NIT is effective in reducing EF in high-risk patients, especially in the elderly patients. HFNC is an alternative treatment to NIV. Fluid balance, RSBI, ROX index, and delirium are associated with the occurrence of EF.

Correlation between anesthetic concentration and low Apgar scores in neonates born via Cesarean sections under general anesthesia.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare plasma concentrations of anesthetic drugs administered during Cesarean section with low Apgar score in neonates deliveried under general anesthesia and analyze associated risk factors. METHODS: Data from 76 neonates undergoing Cesarean section under general anesthesia with blood concentrations of anesthetic drugs were analyzed. A low Apgar score was defined as ≤ 7. Perioperative maternal and neonatal data were collected and analyzed. Neonates were divided into a control group (Group CON, n = 65) and a low Apgar score group (Group LAS, n = 11) based on Apgar score. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the plasma concentrations of anesthetic drugs in maternal artery, umbilical vein or umbilical artery blood between the two groups. Risk factors for neonatal low Apgar scores during Cesarean section under general anesthesia were premature delivery (aOR 10.2, 95% CI = 1.8-56.9) and preoperative fetal distress (aOR 9.6, 95% CI = 1.3-69.0). The prediction model was: probability = 1/(e­Y), Y= -4.607 + 2.318× (premature delivery) + 2.261× (fetal distress) (yes = 1, no = 0). The Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed χ²= 9.587, P = 0.213, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.850 (0.670 ~ 1.000). With a cutoff value of 0.695, sensitivity and specificity were 81.8% and 87.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There was no correlation between blood concentration of general anesthetic drugs and Apgar score or occurrence of neonatal low Apgar scores. Premature delivery and preoperative fetal distress were identified as independent risk factors for neonatal low Apgar scores after Cesarean section under general anesthesia.

Lung ultrasound diagnosis of pulmonary edema resulting from excessive fluid absorption during hysteroscopic myomectomy: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Hysteroscopic surgery is a safe procedure used for diagnosing and treating intrauterine lesions, with a low rate of intraoperative complications. However, it is important to be cautious as fluid overload can still occur when performing any hysteroscopic surgical technique. CASE PRESENTATION: In this case report, we present a unique instance where lung ultrasound was utilized to diagnose pulmonary edema in a patient following a hysteroscopic myomectomy procedure. The development of pulmonary edema was attributed to the excessive absorption of fluid during the surgical intervention. By employing lung ultrasound as a diagnostic tool, we were able to promptly identify and address the pulmonary edema. As a result, the patient received timely treatment with no complications. This case highlights the importance of utilizing advanced imaging techniques, such as lung ultrasound, in the perioperative management of patients undergoing hysteroscopic procedures. CONCLUSIONS: This case report underscores the significance of early detection and intervention in preventing complications associated with fluid overload during hysteroscopic myomectomy procedures.

Effects of different doses of alfentanil combined with target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol for daytime hysteroscopy.

Background: Daytime hysteroscopy requires anesthesia that offers rapid onset and clearance, with minimal respiratory and cardiovascular suppression. This study compared the effects of different doses of alfentanil combined with propofol target-controlled infusion (TCI) for such procedures. Methods: We randomized 240 patients undergoing daytime hysteroscopy into three groups to receive alfentanil at doses of 5 µg/kg, 10 µg/kg, and 15 µg/kg, combined with propofol TCI. We meticulously recorded complications and perioperative vitals to evaluate the safety and efficacy of each dosage regimen. Results: The 10 µg/kg dose of alfentanil, used in conjunction with propofol, required lower propofol dosages and resulted in quicker recovery time and fewer intraoperative movements. However, higher doses of 15 µg/kg led to a significant increase in hypoxemia and instability in hemodynamics and oxygenation. Conclusion: Combining alfentanil at 10 µg/kg with propofol TCI for daytime hysteroscopy results in high effectiveness. A lower incidence of complications, a reduced propofol requirement, and rapid emergence from sedation characterize this regimen.

CHRM3 (rs2165870) gene polymorphism is related to postoperative vomiting in female patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery. Prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative nausea and vomiting are common complications after surgery, and female patients are more likely to experience these adverse events. The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between the CHRM3 rs2165870 polymorphism and postoperative vomiting incidence in female patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery. METHODS: Two hundred female patients who underwent elective laparoscopic surgery with subsequent patient-controlled intravenous analgesia using dexmedetomidine and sufentanil were prospectively enrolled. The CHRM3 rs2165870 and KCNB2 rs349358 polymorphisms were genotyped using MassARRAY SNP typing technology. Demographic data and preoperative laboratory results of all patients were recorded. Postoperative analgesia-related information, incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and other adverse events were followed up and recorded for analysis. RESULTS: No significant differences were observed in any of the demographic characteristics of these patients among the different genotype carriers (P>0.05). The percentages of patients with each genotype of CHRM3 were 67% (GG), 28.5% (GA) and 4.5% (AA). We found that the AA or A allele of the CHRM3 rs2165870 polymorphism elevated the risk of postoperative vomiting (AA versus GG; OR, 6.94; 95% CI, 1.49-32.46; P = 0.014; A versus G; OR, 2.52; 95% CI, 1.22-5.19; P = 0.012). The percentages of patients with each genotype of KCNB2 were 84.5% (TT), 15.5% (CT) and 0% (CC). There were no significant differences in the postoperative nausea or vomiting rate across the KCNB2 rs349358 polymorphisms (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The CHRM3 rs2165870 polymorphism is associated with the occurrence of postoperative vomiting in female patients who have undergone laparoscopic surgery. The AA genotype or A allele of the CHRM3 rs2165870 polymorphism elevates the risk of postoperative vomiting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.chictr.org.cn, registration number: ChiCTR2200062425.

Comparative Analysis of Vision Transformers and Conventional Convolutional Neural Networks in Detecting Referable Diabetic Retinopathy.

Objective: Vision transformers (ViTs) have shown promising performance in various classification tasks previously dominated by convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, the performance of ViTs in referable diabetic retinopathy (DR) detection is relatively underexplored. In this study, using retinal photographs, we evaluated the comparative performances of ViTs and CNNs on detection of referable DR. Design: Retrospective study. Participants: A total of 48 269 retinal images from the open-source Kaggle DR detection dataset, the Messidor-1 dataset and the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases (SEED) study were included. Methods: Using 41 614 retinal photographs from the Kaggle dataset, we developed 5 CNN (Visual Geometry Group 19, ResNet50, InceptionV3, DenseNet201, and EfficientNetV2S) and 4 ViTs models (VAN_small, CrossViT_small, ViT_small, and Hierarchical Vision transformer using Shifted Windows [SWIN]_tiny) for the detection of referable DR. We defined the presence of referable DR as eyes with moderate or worse DR. The comparative performance of all 9 models was evaluated in the Kaggle internal test dataset (with 1045 study eyes), and in 2 external test sets, the SEED study (5455 study eyes) and the Messidor-1 (1200 study eyes). Main Outcome Measures: Area under operating characteristics curve (AUC), specificity, and sensitivity. Results: Among all models, the SWIN transformer displayed the highest AUC of 95.7% on the internal test set, significantly outperforming the CNN models (all P < 0.001). The same observation was confirmed in the external test sets, with the SWIN transformer achieving AUC of 97.3% in SEED and 96.3% in Messidor-1. When specificity level was fixed at 80% for the internal test, the SWIN transformer achieved the highest sensitivity of 94.4%, significantly better than all the CNN models (sensitivity levels ranging between 76.3% and 83.8%; all P < 0.001). This trend was also consistently observed in both external test sets. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that ViTs provide superior performance over CNNs in detecting referable DR from retinal photographs. These results point to the potential of utilizing ViT models to improve and optimize retinal photo-based deep learning for referable DR detection. Financial Disclosures: Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Favorable efficacy of S-1 treatment for locoregionally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck region.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is usually treated with surgery; however, locoregionally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma can be difficult to resect. Although recent guidelines from Western countries recommend using anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies, including cemiplimab and pembrolizumab, there are no approved anti-PD-1 antibodies for locoregional cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in Asian countries. S-1 is an oral drug with a low incidence of severe toxicity that can be used for head and neck cancers, including head and neck locoregional cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, in Japan. We retrospectively evaluated patients with head and neck locoregional cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma treated with S-1 at two Japanese institutions (2008-2022). The initial dosage was determined by the body surface area (<1.25 m2 : 80 mg/day, 1.25-1.5 m2 : 100 mg/day, ≥1.5 m2: 120 mg/day) for 28 consecutive days. The outcome measures were objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Fourteen patients were included. The ORR was 78%, and the complete response (CR) rate was 64.3%. The median PFS and OS were not reached (NR) (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.9 months-NR) and NR (95% CI, 13.8 months-NR), respectively. The 12-month PFS and OS rates were 51% and 85%, respectively. Six of the nine patients who achieved CR showed no recurrence during the follow-up period (median follow-up, 24.7 months). After CR, three patients experienced recurrence. Among these, two resumed S-1 treatment and subsequently underwent salvage surgery, resulting in a sustained absence of recurrence. One patient developed lung metastasis and died, although S-1 therapy was resumed. Only one patient (7.1%) developed grade 3 anemia. S-1 showed favorable efficacy and low toxicity in patients with head and neck locoregionally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. S-1 may be a good alternative to the anti-PD-1 antibody for treating head and neck locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma.

Innate Immune System Regulated by Stimulator of Interferon Genes, a Cytosolic DNA Sensor, Regulates Endothelial Function.

Background Sterile inflammation caused by metabolic disorders impairs endothelial function; however, the underlying mechanism by which hyperglycemia induces inflammation remains obscure. Recent studies have suggested that stimulator of interferon genes (STING), a key cytosolic DNA sensor in the innate immune system, contributes to the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. This study examines the role of the STING in endothelial dysfunction in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. Methods and Results Injection of streptozotocin promoted the expression of STING and DNA damage markers in the aorta of wild-type mice. Streptozotocin elevated blood glucose and lipid levels in both wild-type and STING-deficient mice, which showed no statistical differences. Genetic deletion of STING ameliorated endothelial dysfunction as determined by the vascular relaxation in response to acetylcholine (P<0.001) and increased endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation in the aorta (P<0.05) in STZ-injected mice. Endothelium-independent vascular response to sodium nitroprusside did not differ. Treatment with a direct STING agonist, cyclic GMP-AMP, or mitochondrial DNA increased inflammatory molecule expression (eg, VCAM1 and IFNB) and decreased endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells, partially through the STING pathway. Cyclic GMP-AMP significantly impaired endothelial function of aortic segments obtained from wild-type mice, which was ameliorated in the presence of C-176, a STING inhibitor, or a neutralizing interferon-ß antibody. Furthermore, the administration of C-176 ameliorated endothelial dysfunction in STZ-induced diabetic mice (P<0.01). Conclusions The DNA damage response regulated by STING impairs endothelial function. STING signaling may be a potential therapeutic target of endothelial dysfunction caused by hyperglycemia.

Anesthetic management of fetal pulmonary valvuloplasty: A case report.

Anesthesia management of fetal pulmonary valvuloplasty (FPV) is difficult, requiring careful consideration of both the mother and the fetus. Few reports have been published on specific anesthesia implementation and intraoperative management. We report the case of a pregnant woman who was treated with FPV under combined spinal epidural anesthesia (CSEA) with dexmedetomidine in the second trimester of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the application of fetal anesthesia through the umbilical vein was optimal. During the operation, the vital signs of the pregnant woman were stable with no complications and the fetal bradycardia was corrected by intracardiac injection of epinephrine. Four months postoperatively, a boy was born alive by full-term transvaginal delivery. CSEA may be a suitable anesthesia method for FPV surgery. Nevertheless, maternal hemodynamic stability maintenance, effective fetal anesthesia, and timely fetal resuscitation were necessary.

Anesthetic drug concentrations and placental transfer rate in fetus between term and preterm infants, twins, and singletons.

Objective: This study aims to determine the drug concentration of etomidate, remifentanil, and rocuronium bromide for general anesthesia in fetus as well as the placental transport rate between term and preterm delivery, twins, and singleton. Study design: Sixty parturients with 72 fetuses undergoing cesarean section under general anesthesia were included. According to whether the fetus was a twin or premature, parturients were divided into Group I (term singleton), Group II (premature singleton), Group III (term twins), and Group IV (premature twins). The preoperative demographic characteristics and laboratory examination of parturients, hemodynamic indicators, the Apgar score of neonates at 1, 5, and 10 min after delivery and at specific assigned values, umbilical artery blood gas analysis results, neonatal weight, and resuscitative measures were recorded. Anesthetic drug concentrations in maternal arterial (MA), umbilical arterial (UA), and umbilical venous (UV) blood were detected by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Result: No significant differences were observed in the concentrations of etomidate, remifentanil, and rocuronium bromide in MA, UV, and UA blood, or in the UV/MA and UA/UV ratios between term and preterm infants, twins, and singletons. Moreover, there was no variation in the anesthetic drug concentration among each pair of twins. Additionally, no correlation was found between the neonatal weight and the plasma concentrations of anesthetic drugs in UV and UA blood, except for remifentanil in UA blood. Conclusion: Preterm or twin deliveries do not affect the neonatal concentration of etomidate, remifentanil, and rocuronium bromide used in general anesthesia for cesarean sections. Clinical Trial Registration: www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2100046547.

Remifentanil at a Relatively Elevated Dose in Active Phase is Safe and More Suitable Than Fixed Lower Dose for Intravenous Labor Analgesia.

Background: Intravenous labor analgesia is recommended as an alternative for parturients who have contraindications to epidural analgesia. There are several opioid analgesics and different administering regimens used in the clinic. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety of two intravenous remifentanil dosage regimens in the first labor stage. Patients and Methods: One hundred and fifteen parturients with a contraindication to epidural analgesia but were willing to receive systemic labor analgesia were randomized into group A received a fixed dose of remifentanil throughout the first stage of labor, and group B received an elevated dose of remifentanil during the active phase of the first stage both by patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). Maternal numerical rating scale (NRS) pain score and oxygen desaturation, sedation efficacy, satisfaction, as well as maternal and fetal adverse reactions were recorded and compared. Results: The mean NRS pain scores before analgesia and in the latent phase showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). However, during the active phase, group B demonstrated significantly lower mean NRS pain scores and lowest pain score compared to group A (P < 0.05). Furthermore, group B exhibited higher overall sedation scores and satisfaction scores in comparison to group A (P < 0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups was similar (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Relatively elevated intravenous dosage of remifentanil with PCA during the active phase in the first stage of labor is safe and more effective than a fixed-dosage regimen for labor analgesia. Trial Registration: This study was registered with ChiCTR on 24/08/2021 with trial identification number: ChiCTR2100050247. First participant was recruited on 31/08/2021. The last patient was recruited on 12/08/2022.

High Areal Capacity, Long Cycle Life Li-Air Batteries Enabled by Nano/Micro Hierarchical Porous Cathode.

The limited cycle life of Li-air batteries (LABs) with high areal capacity remains the chief challenge that hinders their practical applications. Here, the study proposes a hierarchical porous electrode (HPE) design strategy, in which porous MnO nanoflowers are built into mesopore/macropore electrodes through a combination of chemical dealloying and physical de-templating procedures. The MnO nanoflowers with 10-30 nm pore provides active sites to catalyze the O2 reduction and decomposition of discharged products. The 5-10 µm macroscopic pores in the cathode serve as channels of O2 transportation and facilitate the electrolyte permeation. The proposed HPE exhibits a full discharge capacity of 17.49 mAh cm-2 and stable cycle life >2000 h with a limited capacity of 6 mAh cm-2 . These results suggest that the HPE design strategy for LABs can simultaneously provide large capacity and robust cycle life, which is promising for advanced metal-air batteries.

Knockdown of mechanosensitive adaptor Hic-5 ameliorates post-traumatic osteoarthritis in rats through repression of MMP-13.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease associated with articular cartilage destruction. Matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) has an essential role in OA pathogenesis by degradation of collagen II, a major component of articular cartilage. Hydrogen peroxide-inducible clone-5 (Hic-5; TGFB1I1), a transforming growth factor-ß-inducible mechanosensor, has previously been reported to promote OA pathogenesis by upregulating MMP-13 expression in mouse osteoarthritic lesions. In our current study, immunohistochemical analysis showed that Hic-5 protein expression was increased in human OA cartilage compared with normal cartilage. Functional experiments demonstrated that Hic-5 and MMP-13 expression was increased by mechanical stress, and mechanical stress-induced MMP-13 expression was suppressed by Hic-5 siRNA in human chondrocytes. Moreover, intracellular localization of Hic-5 shifted to the nucleus from focal adhesions in human chondrocytes subjected to mechanical stress, and nuclear Hic-5 increased MMP-13 gene expression. In vivo, intra-articular injection of Hic-5 siRNA decreased the Osteoarthritis Research Society International score and MMP-13 protein expression in articular cartilage of OA rats. Our findings suggest that Hic-5 regulates transcription of MMP-13 in human chondrocytes, and Hic-5 may be a novel therapeutic target for OA because OA progression was suppressed by intra-articular injection of Hic-5 siRNA in rats.

Deep Neural Network Augments Performance of Junior Residents in Diagnosing COVID-19 Pneumonia on Chest Radiographs.

Chest X-rays (CXRs) are essential in the preliminary radiographic assessment of patients affected by COVID-19. Junior residents, as the first point-of-contact in the diagnostic process, are expected to interpret these CXRs accurately. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a deep neural network in distinguishing COVID-19 from other types of pneumonia, and to determine its potential contribution to improving the diagnostic precision of less experienced residents. A total of 5051 CXRs were utilized to develop and assess an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of performing three-class classification, namely non-pneumonia, non-COVID-19 pneumonia, and COVID-19 pneumonia. Additionally, an external dataset comprising 500 distinct CXRs was examined by three junior residents with differing levels of training. The CXRs were evaluated both with and without AI assistance. The AI model demonstrated impressive performance, with an Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) of 0.9518 on the internal test set and 0.8594 on the external test set, which improves the AUC score of the current state-of-the-art algorithms by 1.25% and 4.26%, respectively. When assisted by the AI model, the performance of the junior residents improved in a manner that was inversely proportional to their level of training. Among the three junior residents, two showed significant improvement with the assistance of AI. This research highlights the novel development of an AI model for three-class CXR classification and its potential to augment junior residents' diagnostic accuracy, with validation on external data to demonstrate real-world applicability. In practical use, the AI model effectively supported junior residents in interpreting CXRs, boosting their confidence in diagnosis. While the AI model improved junior residents' performance, a decline in performance was observed on the external test compared to the internal test set. This suggests a domain shift between the patient dataset and the external dataset, highlighting the need for future research on test-time training domain adaptation to address this issue.

Prolonged Anesthesia Induction to Delivery Time Did Not Influence Plasma Remifentanil Concentration in Neonates.

Objective: Remifentanil, in combination with etomidate and sevoflurane, is commonly used in clinics for general anesthesia induction in cesarean section (CS). This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between the induction to delivery (I-D) time and neonatal plasma drug concentration and anesthesia, as well as its effects on neonates. Methods: Fifty-two parturients in whom general anesthesia was induced for CS were divided into group A (I-D<8 min) and group B (I-D≥8 min). Maternal arterial (MA), umbilical venous (UV), and umbilical arterial (UA) blood samples were collected at delivery to analyze the remifentanil and etomidate concentrations using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of plasma concentrations of remifentanil in the MA, UA, and UV blood (P > 0.05). The plasma concentration of etomidate in MA and UV was higher in group A than that in group B (P<0.05), whereas the UA/UV ratio of etomidate was higher in group B than that in group A (P<0.05). The Spearman rank correlation test showed no correlation between the I-D time and plasma remifentanil concentration in the MA, UA, and UV plasma (P>0.05). The concentrations of etomidate in the MA and UV were negatively correlated with the I-D time (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Prolonged I-D time did not significantly influence the maternal or neonatal plasma concentration of remifentanil. It is safe to administer remifentanil target-controlled infusion in combination with etomidate and sevoflurane for general anesthesia induction during CS.

Development and testing of a multi-lingual Natural Language Processing-based deep learning system in 10 languages for COVID-19 pandemic crisis: A multi-center study.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted global healthcare systems. With the higher demand for healthcare and misinformation related to COVID-19, there is a need to explore alternative models to improve communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) have emerged as promising solutions to improve healthcare delivery. Chatbots could fill a pivotal role in the dissemination and easy accessibility of accurate information in a pandemic. In this study, we developed a multi-lingual NLP-based AI chatbot, DR-COVID, which responds accurately to open-ended, COVID-19 related questions. This was used to facilitate pandemic education and healthcare delivery. Methods: First, we developed DR-COVID with an ensemble NLP model on the Telegram platform (https://t.me/drcovid_nlp_chatbot). Second, we evaluated various performance metrics. Third, we evaluated multi-lingual text-to-text translation to Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. We utilized 2,728 training questions and 821 test questions in English. Primary outcome measurements were (A) overall and top 3 accuracies; (B) Area Under the Curve (AUC), precision, recall, and F1 score. Overall accuracy referred to a correct response for the top answer, whereas top 3 accuracy referred to an appropriate response for any one answer amongst the top 3 answers. AUC and its relevant matrices were obtained from the Receiver Operation Characteristics (ROC) curve. Secondary outcomes were (A) multi-lingual accuracy; (B) comparison to enterprise-grade chatbot systems. The sharing of training and testing datasets on an open-source platform will also contribute to existing data. Results: Our NLP model, utilizing the ensemble architecture, achieved overall and top 3 accuracies of 0.838 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.826-0.851] and 0.922 [95% CI: 0.913-0.932] respectively. For overall and top 3 results, AUC scores of 0.917 [95% CI: 0.911-0.925] and 0.960 [95% CI: 0.955-0.964] were achieved respectively. We achieved multi-linguicism with nine non-English languages, with Portuguese performing the best overall at 0.900. Lastly, DR-COVID generated answers more accurately and quickly than other chatbots, within 1.12-2.15 s across three devices tested. Conclusion: DR-COVID is a clinically effective NLP-based conversational AI chatbot, and a promising solution for healthcare delivery in the pandemic era.

mHealth App to Facilitate Remote Care for Patients With COVID-19: Rapid Development of the DrCovid+ App.

BACKGROUND: The 2019 novel COVID-19 has severely burdened the health care system through its rapid transmission. Mobile health (mHealth) is a viable solution to facilitate remote monitoring and continuity of care for patients with COVID-19 in a home environment. However, the conceptualization and development of mHealth apps are often time and labor-intensive and are laden with concerns relating to data security and privacy. Implementing mHealth apps is also a challenging feat as language-related barriers limit adoption, whereas its perceived lack of benefits affects sustained use. The rapid development of an mHealth app that is cost-effective, secure, and user-friendly will be a timely enabler. OBJECTIVE: This project aimed to develop an mHealth app, DrCovid+, to facilitate remote monitoring and continuity of care for patients with COVID-19 by using the rapid development approach. It also aimed to address the challenges of mHealth app adoption and sustained use. METHODS: The Rapid Application Development approach was adopted. Stakeholders including decision makers, physicians, nurses, health care administrators, and research engineers were engaged. The process began with requirements gathering to define and finalize the project scope, followed by an iterative process of developing a working prototype, conducting User Acceptance Tests, and improving the prototype before implementation. Co-designing principles were applied to ensure equal collaborative efforts and collective agreement among stakeholders. RESULTS: DrCovid+ was developed on Telegram Messenger and hosted on a cloud server. It features a secure patient enrollment and data interface, a multilingual communication channel, and both automatic and personalized push messaging. A back-end dashboard was also developed to collect patients' vital signs for remote monitoring and continuity of care. To date, 400 patients have been enrolled into the system, amounting to 2822 hospital bed-days saved. CONCLUSIONS: The rapid development and implementation of DrCovid+ allowed for timely clinical care management for patients with COVID-19. It facilitated early patient hospital discharge and continuity of care while addressing issues relating to data security and labor-, time-, and cost-effectiveness. The use case for DrCovid+ may be extended to other medical conditions to advance patient care and empowerment within the community, thereby meeting existing and rising population health challenges.