Facing the outbreak of COVID-19, a cross-disciplinary team of Tsinghua experts, from the School of Clinical Medicine and affiliated hospitals, Department of Electronic Engineering, Department of Precision Instruments, School of Aerospace Engineering, led by Dr. Dong Jiahong, the executive vice-president of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and dean of Tsinghua’s School of Medicine, have developed a COVID-19 Intelligent Monitoring and Control System, integrating key technologies of big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence with clinical medicine.
A comprehensive solution with 8 inventions
The Self-assessment System provides users who fill in an online questionnaire with a health assessment and corresponding medical advice: “no action”, “self-quarantine at home” or “seek medical help”.
The Community AI Survey and Monitoring System connects hospitals, health centers and residents together by building a community health database and computerized epidemic distribution data map.
The Smart Clinic Classification System classifies patients into three categories by severity of infection, based on epidemiological details, symptoms, and other key clinical information.
The Smart Diagnosis System is equipped with three key functions - smart image diagnosis, clinical diagnosis, and clinical classification. It is capable of processing a large number of chest CT images of suspected cases and coming up with comprehensive clinical diagnoses in accordance with the most up-to-date government guidelines.
The Medical Robot patrols isolation wards and imitates doctors’ manual operations to a remarkable extent, with three modes available: teleoperation, autonomous and a combination of both, reducing the infection risk and workloads of medical staff.
The Wearable Body Monitoring System continuously and automatically monitors the body temperature and electrocardiogram of suspected and confirmed patients to give early warnings based on their health condition.
The Medical Image Teleconsultation Platform transmits CT images to remote experts in real time, enhancing the efficiency of remote consultation.
The Remote Diagnosis Platform shares information collected by all kinds of medical equipment along with video and audio data in the isolation ward with remote experts, who are therefore able to guide on-site medical staff in clinical decision making.
Tailor-made according to the frontline’s needs
To better meet the needs of frontline medical workers, Dr. Dong Jiahong led a team to visit local medical institutions in Wuhan, including Wuchang District Hospital, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Leishenshan Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, and so on.
During the trip, the team met the frontline staff and surveyed requirements for remote medical support and smart epidemic controls at local isolation treatment centers and community hospitals. The team also helped install and test tele-medical consultation facilities.
Share with China and the world
The inventions of the COVID-19 Intelligent Monitoring and Control System has been utilized in hospitals in Wuhan and other cities in China. Tsinghua is also readily sharing its scientific research in combating COVID-19 with the world.
In addition to helping China battle the COVID-19, an international version of the COVID-19 Intelligent Monitoring and Control System has been released. Among the eight inventions of the System, the Self-assessment System is available in eight foreign languages, including English, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Persian, and Swahili. The system has offered assessments for more than 20 million people in China and around the world. The Smart Diagnosis System, which has helped with the diagnoses of 43,000 patients, is also available in English and Korean, and has been donated to South Korea.
Reporter: Fu Peiyue
