AiCOPD: Artificial Intelligence for treatment and management of COPD

The frequency of long-term illness worldwide is set to double by 2030, putting a strain on healthcare providers. In some settings, telehealth-based chronic disease management technologies were reported to have remarkable success a solution to this problem. However, other major trials suggest that there is no convincing evidence showing that telehealth saves resources or improves quality of life, as the currently used algorithms often cause an increased workload through generation of multiple false alerts. This was shown for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is one of the major causes of emergency admissions and mortality in the UK. More effective approaches to treatment and management of chronic conditions are urgently needed. The aim of our project is to investigate feasibility and potential of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for improving care, treatment, and management of COPD, using predictions of future exacerbations and hospital admissions to enable pre-emptive actions before a patient has an emergency. Although initially exemplified by COPD, we envisage that our AI-powered intelligent telehealth platform will be able to adapt to other chronic diseases, as well as the needs of patients with multiple diseases and comorbidities.