Collaborative Research: RAPID: Understanding and Facilitating Remote Triage and Rehabilitation During Pandemics via Visual Based Patient Physiologic Sensing

这个快速项目计划研究基于视觉的生理传感技术，以促进流行病期间的远程分诊和康复，方法是使用低成本的消费级摄像头从视频中跟踪呼吸频率、心率和血氧饱和度等生理状况。生理数据可以可视化和存档，并由用户与医生共享，以了解和支持远程分诊和康复。拟议的研究可以加强医疗提供者和患者之间的互动，并帮助应对因新冠肺炎而预计激增的远程医疗需求。PI团队计划进行第一次数据收集，将这种新型的非接触式视频传感纳入一个由公共卫生合作团队推出的生物医学队列研究中。这种跨学科的多模式数据收集机会将提供关于多种生物传感模式之间关系的见解，收集的数据将有助于早期发现新冠肺炎及相关疾病的研究。基于视觉的生理传感还将有助于在疫情期间加强康复治疗师和患者之间的远程互动。这一努力的智力价值在于提出了基于视频的非接触式生理监测的潜在工程技术，以支持疫情期间日益增长的远程分诊和康复需求。开发的研究成果和技术解决了远程保健中缺失的一个重要组成部分，它同时实现了社会距离，避免了医院过度拥挤，并优先考虑个人防护设备，以应对流行病。通过与另一项队列研究合作，联合努力收集的史无前例的海量数据将为理解和管理新冠肺炎疾病以及为未来爆发的远程分诊提供关键见解。这一机会的及时性是除RAPID以外的任何常规NSF计划无法满足的。该项目的更广泛影响在于两个方面。多学科的努力将为理解和开发远程分类和康复的技术能力提供重要的新知识和见解，这将有助于早期发现、传播控制以及有效管理和预防未来的流行病。通过该项目开发的支持远程康复的技术将具有改善受影响公民的不利条件和生活质量的强大潜力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RAPID project plans to investigate visual-based physiological sensing technologies to facilitate remote triage and rehabilitation during pandemics, by using low-cost consumer-grade cameras to track such physiological conditions as respiration rate, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation levels from videos. The physiological data can be visualized and archived, and shared by users with medical practitioners to understand and support remote triage and rehabilitation.The proposed research can enhance the interaction between medical providers and patients, and help address a projected surge in telehealth needs due to COVID-19. The PI team plans to conduct the first-of-a-kind data collection, by incorporating the novel contact-free video sensing into a biomedical cohort study that is being rolled out by a public-health collaboration team. This cross-disciplinary opportunity of multimodal data collection will offer insights on the relationship of multiple biosensing modalities, and the data collected would facilitate the research on early detection of COVID-19 and related diseases. The visual-based physiological sensing will also help enhance the remote interaction between rehabilitation therapists and patients during pandemics.The intellectual merit of this effort lies in advancing promising engineering techniques of video-based contact-free physiological monitoring to support the rising needs of remote triage and rehabilitation during pandemics. The research findings and techniques developed address an important missing component in telehealth, which simultaneously achieves social-distancing, avoids hospital overcrowding, and prioritizes personal protective equipment in response to pandemics. By collaborating with another cohort study, an unprecedented multitude of data collected by the joint effort will provide key insights toward understanding and managing COVID-19 diseases and remote triage for future outbreaks. The timeliness of this opportunity cannot be met by any regular NSF programs other than the RAPID.The project’s broader impact lies in two aspects. The multidisciplinary effort will provide important new knowledge and insights toward understanding and developing technology capabilities for remote triage and rehabilitation, which will contribute to the early detection, spread control, and effective management and prevention of future epidemics. The techniques developed through the project to support tele-rehabilitation will have a strong potential to improve the adverse conditions and quality of life of the affected citizens.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.