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Introduction: Information and Communication Technology (ICT), including the internet, wireless networks, mobile phones, cloud computing, fog computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), are used as health care support services [1]. Given the role of healthy citizens in the development of any country, governments allocate significant funding for health information technology infrastructure [2]. According to the World Health Organization's report on managing epidemics in 2018, the 21st century has already been marked by major epidemics. The epidemics in this century are spreading faster and further than ever. Outbreaks that were localized in the past can now become a global issue very quickly, in fact, as fast as an intercontinental aircraft can fly [3]. Infectious diseases are both a national threat to countries and a potential international crisis. Continuous monitoring of the prevalence of airborne, contagious and deadly diseases is the most important part of health care support services [1, 4]. If governments or health insurance companies can monitor healthcare utilization on a daily basis and spread of infectious diseases at national level in real time, a great opportunity will be provided to manage health care services. Healthcare policymakers and insurance company managers can predict the best strategy to effectively manage serious illnesses by monitoring the use of health care services and illnesses [5]. Monitoring the use of healthcare utilization and the occurrence of diseases on a daily basis and at the national level in real time is vital. Healthcare Utilization Monitoring System (HUMS), which was introduced in 2015, is one of the most successful systems in using information technology to monitor and identify the use of health care services. The launch of such systems could certainly help governments to act in a timely manner to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and prevent secondary infections during the outbreak of infectious diseases such as MERS [5]. During epidemics, diagnosis can only be made on the basis of symptoms; this is while early diagnosis is necessary both for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases [7]. Monitoring the health of people in the community plays an important role in controlling and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. For example, continuous monitoring of the respiratory system can severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) [8]. Studies show that patient self-care and tele-monitoring reduce the number of hospital visits and can also predict the likelihood of getting the disease [9]. In the treatment of an epidemic such as influenza, time is greatly important. In annual epidemic diseases, telemedicine allows rapid and appropriate use of treatment and limits general exposure to infected individuals [7]. The use of telemedicine in epidemic conditions has the potential to improve epidemiological research, disease control, and clinical management [10]. Information and communication technology and mathematical-based models have been widely used for the prevention and early prognosis of deadly epidemics [4]. Outbreak modeling can also help us to understand the ways that a disease speeds, and as a result, it enables us to find the best ways to prevent the spread and fight against infectious viral diseases [11]. Corona viruses (CoV) are a large family of infectious viruses that can lead to a variety of illnesses, from colds to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The new coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain of this virus that has not been previously detected in humans. The new coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, on December 19, 2019, and spread rapidly in other countries. Researchers in this short period of time have been looking at various aspects of this unknown virus. Most articles published since the outbreak of coronavirus until April 2020 have been focusing on various aspects, including the characteristics and lessons learned from Covid-19 [14], epidemics [15, 16], pathology [15], descriptive and exploratory analysis of identified cases [17], the role of radiology in rapid diagnosis, prognosis and control [18–21], the effect of chloroquine phosphate in treatment [22], the role of alternative methods in controlling the prevalence [23], comparison of three groups of corona viruses such as SARS, MERS and novel FI [24], and pregnancy care in coronavirus [25]. Due to the rapid spread of new coronavirus 19 in many countries and regions, the number of patients with the virus has exceeded the capacity of hospitals. Healthcare professionals working to manage this unprecedented crisis are faced with the question of what is the best way to coordinate medical resources used in completely separate locations. Due to the high risk of infection and the characteristics of human-to-human transmission, many cities are being locked down. As a result, not only the patients have been marginalized, but also many physicians working in regional hospitals have been having limited access to the necessary counseling and treatment guidelines from provincial hospitals to manage cases of Covid-19 pneumonia. As long as this crisis persists, relying solely on traditional communication practices, such as a doctor's visit or face-to-face counseling on a health care professional network, can lead to significant costs and increased health concerns. Taking advantage of telehealth paradigms, including telemedicine, some countries have succeeded in combating the epidemic by combining information and communication technology with health-related services. Combining online consultation and real-time clinical data exchange can remotely support the digitalization of workflow. Due to the novelty of Covid-19 disease, articles that have examined the role and use of information and communication technology in controlling, preventing and predicting the disease until March 2020 are very few [27, 28]. Moreover, these limited studies have mainly focused on the pathology and treatment of this disease. The aim of this study is to provide a conceptual model based on information and communication technology in order to effectively manage the Covid-19 disease.
The application of information technology in the prevention, control and management of infectious diseases that have occurred in recent years has been discussed in this section. Technologies have been examined in three general categories:
- Electronic health (e-health)
- Cloud computing, fog and the internet of things (IoT)
- Data mining
Electronic health is an emerging field in the medical informatics, public health and business, which enables health services and information to be distributed or enhanced through the internet and related technologies. In the e-health, information communication technology (ICT) is used for improving and delivering health services and related information. Telemedicine, Telehealth, Mobile-health, Mobile patient monitoring are examples of e-health. Telemedicine is a commonly used term in the healthcare sector and is a type of e-health [29, 30]. Telemedicine is often seen as a way to improve the management of chronic diseases and help medical emergencies [30-32]. Research shows that the use of this technology during epidemics has a high potential in disease control [32]. telemedicine applications in epidemic conditions can be divided into 6 conditions:
1: teleconsultation for affected patients who are quarantined in health centers or at home.
2: Tele-expertise that enables the exchange of views between healthcare team.
3: Maintaining the care of patients, who are unable to access health care facilities.
4: teleconsultation for healthy people who are quarantined at home.
5: Tele-monitoring to identify people suspected of having the disease.
6: Tele-radiology
The launch of remote counseling systems, while reducing unnecessary referrals to infectious disease health centers to assess health status, reduces the transmission of disease to healthy individuals [33]. Therefore, remote medical counseling prevents healthy people who are quarantined at home from going to care centers when they are suspected of having the disease. It also helps medical team to visit people at their home for further examination. Among studies done in this area we can point to tele- counseling through a mobile-based telemedicine application to identify suspected cases of Ebola during the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. An analysis of online questionnaires that collect data on the health status of people in the community at the time of outbreak of a contagious disease allows health monitoring centers to identify people suspected of having the disease through a tele-monitoring system. Other examples of telemonitoring used during the EVD epidemic include the use of smartphone in Sierra Leone for Contact Tracing [34, 35], as well as the integrated platform based on open data kit and form hub technology in Nigeria [36]. In 2014, a mobile application for telemonitoring was developed by the United Nations Population Fund with the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea. “Ebola Tracks” was a text message-based remote monitoring system that was used in 2014 in Western Australia to monitor people returning from African countries affected by Ebola. The health status of those who were potentially exposed to the virus was checked twice a day via text message. One of the parameters used in this system was body temperature [37]. In order to reduce the time that care providers spend on communicating with patients quarantined at home or in medical centers, tele counseling has been considered as an acceptable solution. This system shortens the chain of infection and the virus. During the 2003 epidemic of Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Taiwan [38], the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic [38], the 2013 H7N9 flu in China [39], and the 2014 Ebola care in the United States, teleconsultation was used to assess the patients’ status. In 2015 coronavirus epidemic (MERS), South Korea's care centers used tele-prescription to prescribe medication for people who were in quarantine [10]. In regard to the application of telemedicine at the time of epidemic, we can refer to the tele-expertise or distant experience that enables the physicians in a region to benefit from the experiences and expertise of their colleagues [41]. This system helps them to communicate with each other and provide multidisciplinary care. Also, when local medical centers do not have a clinical specialist to diagnose the disease or treat patients, the main supportive centers can advise their colleagues remotely [42]. Protecting the mental health of employees is essential for better control of infectious diseases, but the best approach in this area during epidemics is unknown [41]. In order to respond to the psychological pressures of employees during the outbreak of infectious diseases, there is a strong need for psychological counseling in medical staff [43]. Using a tele psychological system is an effective solution for this problem. It is also essential to create a psychological intervention team, which provides online courses to guide medical staff to deal with common psychological problems. In addition to medical staff, psychological skills are needed to deal with the anxiety, fear and other emotional problems of quarantined patients [44]. tele-radiology is a branch of telemedicine in which, information and communication technology is used to transmit radiological images from one place to another. The goal of this service is to share images with other radiologists and physicians in order to enable remote diagnosis, consultation and interpretation of radiological images. The outbreak of pneumonia, such as SARS and bird flu, highlighted the importance of tele -radiology system. For example, during the outbreak of SARS, many countries formed a national panel of specialists to determine case status and examine clinical, radiological, and epidemiological data from suspected patients [45]. Tele-radiology services eliminate the need for transferring patients to crowded hospitals and provide real-time diagnostic counseling by specialists located across the country and the world to meet the needs of local specialists [42]. Studies show that chest CT has a low misdiagnosis rate in COVID-19 diagnosis and may serve as a standard method for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 to optimize patient management. Given the critical conditions that have plagued the world with the spread of infectious diseases, the use of tele-radiology services can lead to the rapid and effective transfer of findings to physicians [46]. In a study [42] using the WhatsApp messenger platform, tele-radiology services were used in order to diagnose Covid-19 in Iran. In this study, the authors used social media to connect volunteered physicians in North America and committed physicians in Iran for tele-radiological counseling [42]. This communication strategy allows radiologists from around the world to provide advice for specialists in areas with limited access to chest radiology during a rapid expanding epidemic.
Computers and data mining techniques help to analyze, diagnose, predict and control diseases caused by viral infections. By performing various data mining methods on data collected in infectious disease control centers, it is possible to better understand the factors that affect the occurrence of infection and the possibility of recovery from various infectious diseases [47]. Infections such as MERS-CoV spread easily and they have high mortality rate. Therefore, the establishment of predictive systems and the diagnosis of these diseases with a high degree of accuracy can reduce the prevalence and mortality rate of these diseases [47]. Studies show that early detection of MERS-CoV infection can help to control the spread of virus and reduce human suffering [48]. In recent years, researchers have used various machine learning classification techniques on MERS-CoV datasets. In a study [47], data mining models were developed using decision tree classification algorithms, Naive Bayes and J48 to predict stability and improve MERS-CoV infection. This study used the control and command center data set of Saudi Ministry of Health to build the model. The accuracy of this model was estimated between 53.6% and 71.58%. Researchers in a study [49] proposed a cloud-based MERS-CoV prediction system. This system is based on Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) for primary classification of patients. The researchers used a geo-location system to show patients on Google Maps. Patients who were infected could be tracked by GPS of their mobile phones. This proposed system is useful for citizens as it allows them not to enter the contaminated areas. In addition, health officials can effectively manage the problem of infection. The result of this study allowed the prediction of MERS-CoV-infected areas in Google maps with high classification accuracy. In a study [48], to establish a disease prediction model, the Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, and K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) classifications were used on the MERS-CoV dataset, which included all reported cases in Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2017. In a study [50], the researchers used three data mining algorithms of Apriori, Decision Tree, and SVM to compare and differentiate between two viruses with similar symptoms to SARS CoV and MERS CoV. They used the data of spike glycoprotein from NCBI. Results of the study distinguished the MERS and SARS spike glycoprotein with high accuracy. A study [51] used data mining techniques in a text-based MERS-CoV dataset to identify high-precision binary, multi-class, and multi-label classification models. The dataset included all MERS-CoV cases in Saudi Arabia that were collected from the Saudi Ministry of Health from 2013 to the second half of 2016. The results of this study showed that the decision tree is the most accurate algorithm for classifying binary classes, while k-NN is the most accurate algorithm for classifying multiple classes. In 2016, Kerdprasop used remote assessment data to model the main characteristics of Deng's outbreak with regression and binning classification. The proposed model achieved 91-95% accuracy [52]. Different decision support systems have been proposed to prevent the spread of H1N1. In 2015, Lai et al [53] developed a system to predict H1N1 pandemic based on daily influenza cases and general population in Hong Kong. They used spatio-temporal and stochastic SEIR (stsSEIR) model to predict the number of cases for the next two days. In 2014, Dias and Arruda proposed a mathematical based cost optimization model to control the H1N1 epidemic based on the limited cost optimization model [54]. In 2014, Farah et al [55] developed a dynamic epidemic model for H1N1 Influenza using a Bayesian -based simulator. One of the most effective ways to prevent and control the spread of disease is to monitor and follow the news and social media about the spread of infectious diseases. Today, large amounts of emergency and health data are increasingly being obtained from a wide range of websites and social media. This information can be very useful for monitoring the disease and early detection of its outbreak [56]. Due to the growth and development of social networks, the use of web news mining techniques can identify the demographic and geographical information of users with high accuracy [27]. This is only effective if these networks report statistical data along with the related comments, photos, and videos about the infectious diseases. This leads to the prediction of mortality rate in each region, and raises the attention of policymakers to support health care systems in these areas in order to implement targeted training programs in the areas, which ultimately reduce the incidence and mortality rate in the societies [27]. In recent years, several public web monitoring projects have been introduced to monitor and detect early outbreaks of infectious diseases, which include GPHIN [57], BioCaster [58], HealthMap [59], EpiSpider [60], MedISys [61], and Google Flu Trends [62]. The growing popularity of blogs, micro-blogs, and social networks has recently become a valuable new source of information for monitoring disease outbreaks. Among the articles that have shown the potential of Twitter messages to detect and predict the outbreak of disease, we can point to the articles [63] that predicted a swine flu pandemic, [64, 65] detected influenza epidemics, [66] used surveillance system to detect influenza and cancer and [67], all of which have used different machine learning techniques to predict and diagnose the prevalence and classify patients. Recently, a study [27] used the FAMEC method to send a warning message to monitoring systems in order to detect quarantined medical centers prevalence in a timely manner. In the model presented in this study, unstructured data on coronavirus (2019-nCoV) were extracted from Twitter and after the text cleaning processes, they were classified. All of the systems and solutions that have been presented demonstrate the successful use of machine learning techniques to extract and acquire new knowledge for public health care purposes.
- Cloud computing, fog and internet of things (IoT):
The industry 4.0 and its main information and communication technologies are completely changing services and the world of production. This is especially true in the area of health care, where the IoT, cloud computing and fog, as well as Big Data technologies are changing the e-health and its entire ecosystem, leading it to health 4.0. Hospitals need high-capacity information technology infrastructure for patients' electronic health records and data related to personal, patients and physicians [68]. Storing this data helps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The most important part of health care support services is regular monitoring of airborne disease outbreaks [1]. Smart sensors and devices used to monitor the patient's health have computational limitations and limited storage capacity, so they are not able to cope with the large amount of generated data [69]. Cloud computing approach has been adopted to address such challenges. The cloud computing model provides the ability to store, process, and manage large volumes of data [70]. It actually provides high data processing capabilities, along with no storage limitations. Cloud computing, advances in mobile phone technology, and wearable wireless sensors have motivated cloud-based healthcare services. Cloud computing is a paradigm that provides information technology (IT) resources over the internet. Using cloud computing, a huge amount of virus-related data can be linked through social media and other health-related web services [1]. The use of cloud computing in the provision of healthcare support services also enables people to manage their health effectively. The modern healthcare industry is unpredictable without integration with internet-based information technology. The IoT devices such as wearable sensors, environmental sensors, etc. collect significant data on patient health care, which must be processed efficiently [1]. By combining sensors, information technology, artificial intelligence, and networking devices, the IoT can lead to communication between hospitals, patients, and telemedicine devices, which improve medical conditions. Studies show that IoT is useful in controlling and tracking sever acute respiratory infection [71]. Combination of the Internet of Things (IoT) and related technologies can play an important role in preventing the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases [24]. During the outbreak of infectious diseases, the disease control centers need to monitor specific areas. Many efforts have been made to develop portable, user-friendly and cost-effective systems to make diagnosis in the pint of care. In a paper [72], an IoT system has been introduced that can become an essential tool for health care centers to combat the spread of infectious diseases that have been identified by DNA or Ribonucleic acid (RNA). Despite the benefits of cloud computing, due to its centralized nature, it is unable to provide services with minimal latency, location awareness, and geographic distribution that are essential for IoT applications. Since the cloud computing approach requires constant internet connection at a reliable speed with sufficient bandwidth, in cases where bandwidth is insufficient and network interruptions occur, cloud delays would increase and would be difficult to provide healthcare services [73]. In order to provide health care services where decision-making and response to events with minimal delay is necessary [74], another model of processing called fog computing is used. Fog computing is in fact a generalization of cloud computing. Therefore, fog calculations can provide immediate solutions in catastrophic or epidemic cases and provide a platform for monitoring health status, diagnosis and treatment to prevent the spread of life-threatening diseases. A limited number of studies have investigated the benefits of fog computing in the process of managing infectious diseases in their proposed models. In a study [75] a health monitoring system based on fog computing has been proposed for real-time monitoring and analysis of people's health, statistics and related events such as health data, location-based data, drug data, environmental data and meteorological data to control chikungunya virus. Accumulated data from various events are integrated into a common template and will be sent to the fog layer instead of cloud layer for fast processing and high accuracy. In the fog layer, the Fuzzy-C means technique is used to categorize the user into two categories of infected or uninfected based on the collected symptoms. After a person is diagnosed with the virus, an alert message will be sent to the infected person, health care team, and non-infected people as well as those who have visited danger areas or live in hazardous or contaminated areas to take precautions and immediate action to prevent the spread of CHV. The results of this study confirmed the benefits of fog layer alongside the cloud layer to achieve faster detection, reduce latency, and optimize bandwidth usage. A study [1] provided a framework based on fog architecture that categorized dengue patients into three categories of uninfected, infected, and severely infected using a dataset built in 2010. The purpose of this proposed framework was to create a latency-aware system to categorize users into different categories based on related symptoms using IoT sensors and audio/video files. To achieve this, a smart framework consisting of three components has been proposed, which include the IoT layer, the fog infrastructure, and cloud computing. By the use of network devices within the fog infrastructure, the system delay time is reduced. The data generated by the IoT layer is first processed by the devices in fog layers, which are at close distance with the user. The raw data and generated data are then stored in cloud infrastructure and then, they are sent to various institutions, including the user, hospital, physician, and public health organizations. Experimental evaluation of this hypothesis proved that using fog infrastructure can provide a better response time for delay-sensitive programs with the least impact on system accuracy. Article [4] provides an effective cloud computing architecture that predicts patients infected with H1N1 and provides preventive measures for infection control. This program includes four processing components along with a secure medical database for cloud storage. The random decision tree is used for initial evaluation of the infection in each patient depending on his/her symptoms. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is used to present the outbreak situation. Other studies that have proposed cloud computing architectures at the time of outbreak of infectious diseases include; Tazkia et al (2015) study that attempted to identify the possible prevalence of dengue virus based on statistical calculations and geographic information system (GIS) [76], Sandhu et al (2016) study [4] that aimed to prevent and predict H1N1 influenza and MERS-Corona, and a study [77] that proposed a IoT-based cloud framework to control the outbreak of Ebola virus with continuous tele-monitoring of infected patients in real time using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, cloud computing and J48 decision tree. Since there is no specific treatment for coronavirus, there is an urgent need for global monitoring of those infected with Covid-19 [24]. In a study [28], for early detection and rapid improvement of Covid-19, the web-based program was presented for intelligence diagnosis under the name of nCapp. This intelligent system classifies patients in mild, moderate, severe, or critical pneumonia. This cloud based system has the ability to update its database online and update its detection model based on the latest data. In connection with infectious diseases, remote detection and monitoring of infections is vital for controlling the spread of disease in real time. In the event of an outbreak of infectious disease, people in the community who go to medical centers can be at risk of getting the virus [75]. Therefore, the cloud - fog computing, which is based on IoT tools and clinical decision-making systems, is an important step in early detection of infectious diseases, reducing referrals to health care centers and ultimately, reducing the risk of infection in the community.