Insight
Better Clinical Decision Support for COVID-19: Identifying Patients at Highest-Risk
Estimates place the in-hospital mortality for patients with COVID-19 between 15 and 25 percent, making early identification of individuals at high risk an imperative. Clinicians need reliable tools to identify individuals at the highest risk of severe deterioration. Risk-scoring tools exist for common acute conditions (such as septic, hypovolemic, or cardiogenic shock), but these methods don’t focus on COVID-19’s primary clinical impact—respiratory function. As a result, patients experiencing severe symptoms of COVID-19 may appear stable according to vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure, when they’re in fact critically ill. A more evolved approach to COVID-19 risk scoring focuses hypoxemia, or a below-normal blood oxygen level.