STTR Phase I: A Mobile Triage Application for Reducing the Risk of COPD Exacerbations

这一小型企业技术转移(STTR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是减少慢性阻塞性肺疾病(COPD)患者的重大疾病发作，提高患者的生活质量，并减少昂贵和不必要的医疗保健使用。目前对COPD患者的居家护理支持往往完全缺失，或者由未能提供有效的个性化护理的行动计划组成。该项目中正在开发的替代解决方案是一款易于使用的个性化移动应用程序，它可以及早发现疾病退化，跟踪患者的健康历史，并提供决策支持，以指导患者在正确的时间获得正确的医疗服务。慢性阻塞性肺病是导致可能避免住院的主要慢性病之一。将移动健康管理应用程序与提供即时医疗指导的智能分诊系统相结合，有可能大幅减少不必要的COPD住院时间，并为COPD症状提供长期维持治疗。此外，一个易于获得、高度准确、方便的解决方案可以使患者能够及早做出更好的健康决定。STTR第一阶段项目建议展示移动分诊应用程序对COPD患者的积极影响和采用。到目前为止，已经建立了一套分类算法，并在模拟患者病例上进行了验证。这些算法的性能与一组经过委员会认证的肺科医生不相上下，甚至更好。下一个关键步骤是确定打包的、独立的移动应用程序的技术可行性。这项研究将专注于开发一款功能齐全的原型，该原型针对采用率、保留率和有效性进行了优化。通过人工测试收集的用户反馈和严格的使用分析相结合，将提供有关使用障碍、缺失功能和消费者价值的必要见解。健康安全、症状升级和患者生活质量的标准化标记将被用作产品性能的衡量标准。此外，所有数据和结论都将通过出版和公开陈述接受同行审查。作为一个额外的目标，算法分流建议的准确性将在真实的患者案例中进行测试，以进一步验证其准确性和有效性。第一阶段程序的预期结果是证明应用程序是安全的(目标1)，在操作上是健全的和最佳的(阶段2)，并对消费者有价值(目标3)。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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project is the reduction of significant disease flare-ups in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), increase in patient quality-of-life, and a reduction of expensive and unnecessary healthcare utilization. Current at-home care support for COPD patients is often completely missing or consists of action plans that fail to provide effective, individualized care. The alternative solution under development in this project is an easy-to use, personalized mobile application that catches disease degeneration early, tracks patient health history, and provides decision support to guide patients to the right medical care at the right time. COPD is one of the leading chronic conditions driving potentially avoidable hospital admissions. Pairing a mobile health management app with a smart triage system that provides instant healthcare guidance has the potential to dramatically reduce unnecessary COPD hospitalization and provide long-term maintenance treatment of COPD symptoms. Moreover, an easily accessible, highly accurate, convenient solution can empower patients to make better health decisions early. This STTR Phase I project proposes to demonstrate positive impact and adoption of a mobile triage application for COPD patients. To date, a set of triage algorithms has been built and validated on simulated patient cases. The algorithms exhibited performance that is comparable to or better than a panel of board-certified pulmonologists. The next vital step is to establish the technical feasibility of a packaged, stand-alone mobile application. This research will focus on developing a fully featured prototype that is optimized for adoption, retention, and efficacy. A mix of user feedback and rigorous usage analysis collected through human testing will provide necessary insights on barriers to use, missing functionality, and consumer value. Standardized markers of health safety, symptom escalations, and patient quality-of-life will be used as metrics of product performance. Moreover, all data and conclusions will be subjected to peer review through publication and public presentations. As an additional objective, the accuracy of the algorithmic triage recommendations will be tested on real patient cases to further validate their accuracy and effectiveness. The anticipated result of the phase I procedure is demonstration that the app is safe (objective 1), operationally sound and optimal (phase 2), and valuable to consumers (objective 3).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.