External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools

Mark H. Ebell; Robert P. Lennon; Derjung M. Tarn; Bruce Barrett; Alex H. Krist; Huamei Dong; Xinyan Cai; Arch G. Mainous; Aleksandra E. Zgierska; Wen-Jan Tuan; Munish Goyal

doi:10.1370/afm.2872

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RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
Mark H. Ebell

Published on: 28 February 2023
RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
Caelin M Burke, Brooke M Scully, Rodae'a A White and Lorraine S Wallace

Published on: 27 February 2023

Published on: (28 February 2023)
Page navigation anchor for RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
Mark H. Ebell, Professor and Family Physician, University of Georgia
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that it is a bit unexpected that asthma got into one model but not another. It may have co-varied with other variables including respiratory rate or oxygen saturation. Since submitting this article to Annals, we have published another prediction model n the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine that I think is more relevant for family physicians. It is a simple model that predicts the risk of hospitalization in primary care outpatients during the omicron wave, and performed at least as well as the COVID-Lab and SimpleLab risk scores. The link is here: https://www.jabfm.org/content/early/2022/09/15/jabfm.2022.ap.220056.abst... . We have also implemented it as a free app written using R Shiny here: https://ebell-projects.shinyapps.io/LehighRiskScore/ We think that it is simple enough to memorize and easily incorporate into primary care practice. As you can see, one of the risk factors is "Any comorbidity" from a list that includes asthma.

Again, thanks for your comments. And Go Blue! ;-)

Competing Interests: None declared.
Published on: (27 February 2023)
Page navigation anchor for RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
RE: External Validation of the COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab Prognostic Tools
Caelin M Burke, Undergraduate Student, The Ohio State University
Other Contributors:
Brooke M Scully, Undergraduate Student

Rodae'a A White, Undergraduate Student

Lorraine S Wallace, Associate Professor- College of Medicine
As aspiring health professionals, we were very interested in the easy-to-use COVID-NoLab and COVID-SimpleLab prognostic tools. In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize the need for efficiency and accuracy in diagnosing COVID-19 infections.

In reviewing the article, we noticed that asthma was included in the COVID-SimpleLab score, but not the COVID-NoLab score. We were wondering why this is the case. Do you feel that inclusion of asthma (“yes” or “no”) could potentially strengthen accuracy of the COVID-NoLab assessment? Further, we were also curious as to the potential of strengthening the prognostic ability of the COVID-NoLab by querying patients about history of other respiratory disease diseases and/or risks such as chronic pulmonary obstructive disease or history of smoking. As we look towards the future, we are interested to know your thoughts regarding how these risk assessments can be modified to account for COVID-19 variants. What changes could be made to these assessments to better predict the outcomes of emerging COVID-19 variants over time?

Competing Interests: None declared.