Machine learning early prediction of respiratory syncytial virus in pediatric hospitalized patients.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes millions of infections among children in the US each year and can cause severe disease or death. Infections that are not promptly detected can cause outbreaks that put other hospitalized patients at risk. No tools besides diagnostic testing are available to rapidly and reliably predict RSV infections among hospitalized patients. We conducted a retrospective study from pediatric electronic health record (EHR) data and built a machine learning model to predict whether a patient will test positive to RSV by nucleic acid amplification test during their stay. Our model demonstrated excellent discrimination with an area under the receiver-operating curve of 0.919, a sensitivity of 0.802, and specificity of 0.876. Our model can help clinicians identify patients who may have RSV infections rapidly and cost-effectively. Successfully integrating this model into routine pediatric inpatient care may assist efforts in patient care and infection control.