CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cleveland Clinic has developed a risk prediction model, a calculator that researchers say can predict your risk of developing Covid-19, which in turn can help them guide resources to those who are most at risk.
The risk prediction model was based on the extensive research of 12,000 patients in Ohio, including those who tested positive and negative; it also isolated 400 variables and subsequently used that data in statistical algorithms to produce the risk calculator.
“We wanted to generate, based on all that information, a tool at the end of the day that could be usable and accurate,” said Dr. Lara Jehi, the Clinic’s Chief Research Information Officer.
Cleveland Clinic research shows the model is about 85 percent accurate while taking into account age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, vaccination history plus various medical history.
It takes only minutes to complete the questions in the risk calculator and your percentage risk of developing Covid-19 is available immediately.
The assessment allows doctors to gauge risk and then provide guidance to those at the highest risk.
“Making sure that patients who are at risk, get followed more intensely in our home monitoring program,” Dr. Jehi said.
The prediction model will not only help doctors understand who is at risk of developing Covid but also, Dr. Jehi said, who is at risk of developing a severe case.
“We’re looking also at who is at risk at ending up at the hospital, we’re looking at who is at risk of ending up in the ICU,” she said.
An individualized specific risk assessment for everyone was the goal, but the research also provided new insight into Covid 19.
“We identified certain factors that could influence the risk of having Covid which we did not know before,” Dr. Jehi said.
Those factors will be studied in clinical trials at the Cleveland Clinic.
Copyright 2020 WOIO. All rights reserved.