Challenge May-2021

COVID-19 Testing                                                                                        Solutions

COVID19Testing

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of potential cases rising and the number of tests not scaling up as fast, the Belgian government instituted a triage procedure to determine which patients should undergo PCR testing. Specifically, a number of symptoms for COVID-19 were identified, such as coughing, sneezing, or fever. Depending on the number of symptoms a patient presented, subsequent PCR testing was conducted.

We ask to submit a knowledge specification, through DM tables or otherwise, that describes the following triage procedure that determines for (a group of) patients who should undergo subsequent testing:

  1. Patients present sneezing and/or coughing as symptoms; this is determined by what the patient him or herself details (i.e., anamnesis).
  1. A patient’s temperature is measured. The default fever threshold is 38°C; due to different methods of measurement for young children and their associated accuracy, for patients younger than 10 the fever threshold is considered to be 37.2°C.
  1. Based on the first two steps, the number of presented symptoms is determined. If a patient presents at least two (2) of these symptoms, subsequent testing is performed, otherwise standard quarantine practices are advised.

In this knowledge specification, pay special attention to the nature of the pandemic as an ongoing crisis with expertise being gained continuously. Specifically, take into account how the following scenarios impact your specification:

  1. The possible emergence of additional symptoms such as loss of smell or loss of taste.
  2. A different threshold of symptoms deemed present before referral to subsequent testing.

Please submit your implementation of this decision model using your favorite Decision Modeling tool.

Solutions:

P.S. This challenge was proposed by Matthias van der Hallen, KU Leuven – DTAI