Convalescent-plasma-transfusion intelligent framework for rescuing COVID-19 patients across centralised/decentralised telemedicine hospitals based on AHP-group TOPSIS and matching component

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads across the world, the transfusion of efficient convalescent plasma (CP) to the most critical patients can be the primary approach to preventing the virus spread and treating the disease, and this strategy is considered as an intelligent computing concern. In providing an automated intelligent computing solution to select the appropriate CP for the most critical patients with COVID-19, two challenges aspects are bound to be faced: (1) distributed hospital management aspects (including scalability and management issues for prioritising COVID-19 patients and donors simultaneously), and (2) technical aspects (including the lack of COVID-19 dataset availability of patients and donors and an accurate matching process amongst them considering all blood types). Based on previous reports, no study has provided a solution for CP-transfusion-rescue intelligent framework during this pandemic that has addressed said challenges and issues. This study aimed to propose a novel CP-transfusion intelligent framework for rescuing COVID-19 patients across centralised/decentralised telemedicine hospitals based on the matching component process to provide an efficient CP from eligible donors to the most critical patients using multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. A dataset, including COVID-19 patients/donors that have met the important criteria in the virology field, must be augmented to improve the developed framework. Four consecutive phases conclude the methodology. In the first phase, a new COVID-19 dataset is generated on the basis of medical-reference ranges by specialised experts in the virology field. The simulation data are classified into 80 patients and 80 donors on the basis of the five biomarker criteria with four blood types (i.e., A, B, AB, and O) and produced for COVID-19 case study. In the second phase, the identification scenario of patient/donor distributions across four centralised/decentralised telemedicine hospitals is identified 'as a proof of concept'. In the third phase, three stages are conducted to develop a CP-transfusion-rescue framework. In the first stage, two decision matrices are adopted and developed on the basis of the five 'serological/protein biomarker' criteria for the prioritisation of patient/donor lists. In the second stage, MCDM techniques are analysed to adopt individual and group decision making based on integrated AHP-TOPSIS as suitable methods. In the third stage, the intelligent matching components amongst patients/donors are developed on the basis of four distinct rules. In the final phase, the guideline of the objective validation steps is reported. The intelligent framework implies the benefits and strength weights of biomarker criteria to the priority configuration results and can obtain efficient CPs for the most critical patients. The execution of matching components possesses the scalability and balancing presentation within centralised/decentralised hospitals. The objective validation results indicate that the ranking is valid.

Keywords: AHP; COVID-19; Convalescent Plasma; Multi-criteria decision making; Prioritisation; Serological Biomarkers/Protein; TOPSIS.

Fig. 1

Conceptual diagram for hospital interoperability in centralised/decentralised telemedicine

Fig. 2

Methodology phases for the CP-transfusion-rescue intelligent framework

Fig. 3

CP-transfusion framework stages

Fig. 4

Integrated AHP-TOPSIS model for prioritisation using multicriteria decision-making

Fig. 5

Hierarchy of AHP for the serological/protein biomarker COVID-19 criteria

Fig. 6

Sample evaluation form

Fig. 7

Results of the four groups of patients. a First group. b Second group. c Third group. d Fourth group

Fig. 8

Results of the four groups of donors. a First group. b Second group. c Third group. d Fourth group