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Worldwide trial uses AI to quickly identify ideal Covid-19 treatments

Reporter : Irina Robu, PhD

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 that has been spreading around the world can cause a respiratory illness that can be severe. The disease, COVID-19 appears to have a fatality rate of less than 2 percent and forcing doctors to choose between two equally revolting options: try an unproven therapy and anticipate that it works or treat patients with standard supportive care for severe respiratory disease until a vaccine is developed.

Currently, randomized controlled trials have started in dozens of hospitals around the world by fusing two approaches together, using artificial intelligence to home in or using the most effective treatments for respiratory infections. The randomized trials, also known as an adaptive trial, in which scientists adjust the treatment protocols and/or statistical procedures based on the outcomes of participants. The trials are seen as a way to detect promising treatments and brand trials more flexible than traditional randomized trials and force patients, trial sponsors to wait for an outcome that often turns out to be disappointing. The inadequacies of the randomized approach have been taken into sharp relief during the pandemic, as thousands of patients can’t wait for gold-standard science to play out as they lay dying in intensive care of units.

However, analyzing data from more than 50 hospitals, researchers hope to supply quick answers to pressing questions such as the fact that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine is an effective therapy and, if so, for which types of patients. The trial will also allow the researchers to test multiple therapies at once. Since the approach seems reasonable to give answers during a pandemic, it still has a lot of challenges, plus the necessity to rapidly assemble and analyze data from several hospitals with various record-keeping systems on three continents. Then update the protocols in accord during a crisis that is draining clinical resources.

Since several treatments are being tested, carrying out these trials is predominantly complicated. But progress in computing resources required to share data and analyze it swiftly using artificial intelligence have started to make these designs more practical.

The World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with groups like the Gates Foundation, have offered increasing support for adaptive trial designs in recent years, particularly as a way to evaluate therapies during epidemics.

Nonetheless that doesn’t mean this specific effort is going to yield results in time to save the first wave of extremely ill patients. Once a promising treatment is recognized more patients will be allocated to receive it during each successive round of therapy. So far, about 130 ICU patients with Covid-19 have been enrolled, furthermore to hundreds of other hospitalized patients.

The goal in the REMAP-CAP trial, once all the trial sites are up and running, is to analyze results and change treatments on a weekly basis.

SOURCE

International trial uses AI to rapidly identify optimal Covid-19 treatments

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