Improving chronic disease management for children with knowledge graphs and artificial intelligence

Chronic diseases for children pose serious challenges from a health management perspective. When not implemented in a well-designed manner, an inefficient management platform can have a significant negative impact on patients and the utilization of health care resources. Innovations of recent years in information technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning provide possibilities to design and implement knowledge-based systems and platforms that follow-up, monitor and advise child patients with a chronic disease in an automated manner. In this article we propose the Artificial Intelligence Chronic Management System that combines artificial intelligence, knowledge graph, big data and internet of things in a platform to offer an optimized solution from the perspective of treatment and utilization of resources. The system includes patient and hospital clients, data storage and analytic tools for decision support relying on AI-based services. We illustrate the functionality of the system through different situations frequently occurring in pediatric wards. To assess the feasibility of the AI component, we utilize real life health care data from a hospital in China to develop a classification model for patients with asthma. To provide a more qualitative assessment at the same time, we discuss how the Artificial Intelligence Chronic Management System conforms to the requirements set forth by the standard Chronic Care Model. •A new chronic disease management system aimed at child patients is proposed.•Knowledge graph-based information representation combined with artificial intelligence.•The model provides the tools to automate many chronic care-related decisions.•The proposed platform complies with and optimizes the execution of traditional Chronic Care Model.•The model is illustrated using health care data from patients of a hospital in China.