News Agency: Ban Muang
URL: https://www.banmuang.co.th/news/region/201457
Publishing date: 5 Aug 2020
First time in the world! Computer engineering students from KKU join hands with doctors to create a mobile application tool to help doctors assess the risk of patients having difficulty or easy breathing, reducing complications from intubation and helping save lives faster.
On August 5, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pariwat Phu-ngern, a lecturer at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, revealed about the Difficult Airway Detection Application (DI Detection App) that the application was developed jointly by the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, by Assoc. Prof. Wanida Kaena-Akat, Mr. Sirawit Srisurianukul, and Mr. Sirapop Jaruthanyalak. From the study of the literature on mobile applications in health care, there has been no such research. Therefore, this project is the first in the world to create a tool in the form of a mobile application that helps doctors assess a patient’s risk of intubation by measuring the Thyromental Height Test (TMHT) distance from a photo of the patient’s side and provide results indicating whether the patient has difficulty in intubating.
Dr. Pariwat said that intubation in critically ill patients is a very important procedure. Before intubation, the doctor will assess whether the patient is at risk of difficult intubation. Originally, we had to rely mainly on the doctor's experience. However, a review of the literature found that measuring the distance from the tip of the chin to the Adam's apple (Thyromental Height Test: TMHT) is the most reliable method for predicting the risk of difficult intubation. Therefore, we chose this method to develop an application to help decide whether a patient is easy or difficult to intubate.
Dr. Pariwat added that the work starts when the patient is lying on his back in the standard position. We will use the application to take a picture of the patient from the side and calculate the distance. When the picture is taken, the application will take only 5 seconds to process. For example, if a patient has a TMHT of more than 5 centimeters, it means that the patient is at risk of difficult intubation. The doctor taking care of the patient must be more prepared to intubate the patient than a normal patient, which helps reduce complications from intubation.
Dr. Pariwat added that in addition to the ability to predict whether a patient will have difficulty in getting a breathing tube, the DI Detection App also has important medical information that is necessary for doctors to review before intubating. For example, if a COVID-19 patient needs to be intubated, there will be steps to provide knowledge on how to treat the patient. Or if you can't remember the dosage or steps, you can search for information in the application immediately. Currently, the DI Detection App is only the initial version. We currently have ongoing plans with the Faculty of Engineering to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help analyze and develop the application to be better. In addition, there is a plan to use the application for research with real patients in the future.
Dr. Pariwat concluded that this tool helps doctors assess the patient's risk of intubation by measuring the distance of the DI Detection App from the patient's side photo and gives results on whether the patient has difficulty or easy intubation, which is one of the factors in the Difficult Airway Assessment analysis using the Case-Based Reasoning approach to use patient factors to assess the results in order to obtain the appropriate treatment for each condition in order to reduce the incidence of complications from intubation and save lives faster. Interested doctors can download it at https://apps.apple.com/th/app/di-detection/id1508073248.
