Critical Care, Critical Data - Using Machine Learning in the Health Care Industry (A)

To be used with the simulation Critical Care, Critical Data: Artificial Intelligence Lifecycle Simulation (OITW-1-E).

In December 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic was raging through the world. The hospitals of Grupo de Asistencia Clínica (GAC) one of Spain's largest private hospital networks, were treating over eight hundred people sick with COVID, of varying severity, and new patients were admitted every day.
Given that COVID was caused by a novel coronavirus, knowledge of the disease was still in its infancy, and GAC's healthcare professionals were making critical decisions affecting the wellbeing of their patients with little support. As Science Coordinator, Irene was convinced that Artificial Intelligence (AI), could potentially be used to help doctors treat COVID. She had obtained the support of GAC's board, and the group had retained the services of DataTool, a consulting company specializing in data and AI-driven applications. The case describes how the care of COVID patients was organized inside GAC, and how and when medical decisions were being taken. Afterward, the case describes the attempt to create an AI model that could potentially help healthcare professionals make these decisions. The case explains all the steps of the process, technical and data quality requirements, and the key decisions GAC will have to make along the way. What should Irene - and GAC - do to make sure that the project was successful? How should they define this success? What would be the best possible AI implementation?