Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Oct 27;22(10):e21476.
doi: 10.2196/21476.

Artificial Intelligence for COVID-19: Rapid Review

Jiayang Chen  1 , Kay Choong See  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Artificial Intelligence for COVID-19: Rapid Review

Jiayang Chen et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 was first discovered in December 2019 and has since evolved into a pandemic.

Objective: To address this global health crisis, artificial intelligence (AI) has been deployed at various levels of the health care system. However, AI has both potential benefits and limitations. We therefore conducted a review of AI applications for COVID-19.

Methods: We performed an extensive search of the PubMed and EMBASE databases for COVID-19-related English-language studies published between December 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020. We supplemented the database search with reference list checks. A thematic analysis and narrative review of AI applications for COVID-19 was conducted.

Results: In total, 11 papers were included for review. AI was applied to COVID-19 in four areas: diagnosis, public health, clinical decision making, and therapeutics. We identified several limitations including insufficient data, omission of multimodal methods of AI-based assessment, delay in realization of benefits, poor internal/external validation, inability to be used by laypersons, inability to be used in resource-poor settings, presence of ethical pitfalls, and presence of legal barriers. AI could potentially be explored in four other areas: surveillance, combination with big data, operation of other core clinical services, and management of patients with COVID-19.

Conclusions: In view of the continuing increase in the number of cases, and given that multiple waves of infections may occur, there is a need for effective methods to help control the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its shortcomings, AI holds the potential to greatly augment existing human efforts, which may otherwise be overwhelmed by high patient numbers.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS virus; artificial intelligence; computing; coronavirus; deep learning; machine learning; medical informatics; review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Adherence of studies to reporting standards.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Risk of bias and applicability assessment using PROBAST (Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhou P, Yang X, Wang X, Hu B, Zhang L, Zhang W, Si H, Zhu Y, Li B, Huang C, Chen H, Chen J, Luo Y, Guo H, Jiang R, Liu M, Chen Y, Shen X, Wang X, Zheng X, Zhao K, Chen Q, Deng F, Liu L, Yan B, Zhan F, Wang Y, Xiao G, Shi Z. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020 Feb 03;579(7798):270–273. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reeves JJ, Hollandsworth HM, Torriani FJ, Taplitz R, Abeles S, Tai-Seale M, Millen M, Clay BJ, Longhurst CA. Rapid response to COVID-19: health informatics support for outbreak management in an academic health system. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2020 Jun 01;27(6):853–859. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa037. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32208481 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Emanuel EJ, Persad G, Upshur R, Thome B, Parker M, Glickman A, Zhang C, Boyle C, Smith M, Phillips JP. Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020 May 21;382(21):2049–2055. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsb2005114. http://paperpile.com/b/zeAGPV/uAhk - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yassine HM, Shah Z. How could artificial intelligence aid in the fight against coronavirus? Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2020 Jun 29;18(6):493–497. doi: 10.1080/14787210.2020.1744275. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mashamba-Thompson TP, Crayton ED. Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Technology for Novel Coronavirus Disease-19 Self-Testing. Diagnostics (Basel) 2020 Apr 01;10(4):198. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics10040198. https://www.mdpi.com/resolver?pii=diagnostics10040198 - DOI - PMC - PubMed