Table 3.

Main groups and subgroups related to the applications of clinical decision support system (CDSS) in diagnosis, management, and control of COVID-19

Main group	Subgroups (applications)	First round of Delphi		Second round of Delphi	Final acceptance or rejection
		Mean± standard deviation (SD)	Accepted / review	Mean± standard deviation (SD)
Diagnosis	Diagnosis through signs and symptoms	4.37 ±0.76	√		√
	Helping diagnose infections and damaged lung tissue through computerized tomography scan	4.58±0.83	√		√
	Diagnosing patients' fever by smart devices or wearables4.11±0.87	√		√
	Diagnosis by designing a social networking robot (like telegram robots) for initial screening	3.26±0.93	*	3.16±1.38	×
	Helping diagnose and monitor patients through communication-oriented spatial decision support system (SDSS) for: the target group is mostly communication-oriented CDSS, internal teams of physicians and nurses, and other treatment staff. Examples of types of communication-oriented CDSS are chat and instant messaging software, online collaboration, and net meeting software.	3.89±0.87	√		√
	Diagnosis and treatment of the disease through document-based CDSSs (for example, using an info button to search web pages and find documents to provide new documentation for physicians)	4.00±0.81	√		√
	Automatic assessment of disease risks in families to identify and diagnose people affected in a family to help family physicians hospitalize or quarantine individuals at home	4.32±0.67	√		√
	Diagnosis and control of respiratory diseases caused by COVID-19 and specialized support for spirometry4.16±0.83	√		√
	Interpreter based on CT images obtained from patients' lungs to diagnose and control the disease	4.37 ±0.68	√		√
Medication	Reminder in prescribing medication	3.84 ±1.46	√		√
	Warning at the time of prescribing the drug at the wrong time	3.95 ±1.35	√		√
	Warning in case of drug allergies	4.16 ±0.83	√		√
	Estimation of drug dose	4.05 ±0.91	√		√
	Prohibiting the prescription of illegal and counterfeit drugs	4.16 ±1.06	√		√
	Preventing drug interactions	4.32±0.82	√		√
	Providing medication advice after discharge	4.11±0.87	√		√
	Managing the treatment of depression and prescribing antidepressants	2.74±1.09	*	3.26±0.93	×
Monitoring	Tracking and monitoring patients in the hospital using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology	4.16±0.89	√		√
	Monitoring the vital signs (body temperature, pulse rate (heart rate), blood pressure, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation) of patients in ICU	4.63±0.59	√		√
	Continuously monitoring patients' breathing and body temperature by smart devices or wearables4.58±0.60	√		√
Health services	Helping accommodate and hospitalize patients quickly in hospitals and medical centers by spatial decision support system (SDSS)	4.42±0.69	√		√
	Helping identify high-risk locations to prevent the provision of services through mobile hospitals by SDSS	4.16±0.76	√		√
	Modeling patient behavior and using models to investigate the effect of treatment measures on patient survival	4.11±1.10	√		√
	Automated patient reporting system to provide a report of patients' physical and psychological condition in order to make the right treatment decision	3.95±0.91	√		√
	Providing treatment suggestions to reduce the side effects of the disease	4.11±0.73	√		√
	Remote monitoring and management of patients by physicians through the reception of symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, and acute respiratory problems	3.89±1.37	√		√
	Providing reminders to move patients from the ICU to other departments	3.95±1.07	√		√
	Automatic reminder to help with the patient discharge process	4.11±0.93	√		√
	Patient classification using signs and symptoms related to COVID-19	4.37±0.68	√		√
	Grade disease severity to help hospitalization or home quarantine based on processing CT images of the lungs	4.53±0.61	√		√
	Accessing the patient's medical history to make the right decision	4.26±1.09	√		√
	Alerting in case of improper nutrition	3.71±1.31		3.73±1.43	×
	Electronic assessment of COVID-19 risk to prevent the disease	4.21±0.91	√		√
	Automatic assessment of disease risks by family physician	3.16±1.38	*	3.26±1.17	×
	Assess and diagnose disabilities in older people with coronavirus	3.26±1.19	*	3.71±1.31	×

*: Review in Delphi second round; √: Final accepted; ×: Final rejection, CT: Computer­ized Tomography, ICU: Intensive Care Unit