Agreement and Reliability Analysis of Machine Learning Scaling and Wireless Monitoring in the Assessment of Acute Proximal Weakness by Experts and Non-Experts: A Feasibility Study

Assessing the symptoms of proximal weakness caused by neurological deficits requires the knowledge and experience of neurologists. Recent advances in machine learning and the Internet of Things have resulted in the development of automated systems that emulate physicians’ assessments. The application of those systems requires not only accuracy in the classification but also reliability regardless of users’ proficiency in the real environment for the clinical point-of-care and the personalized health management. This study provides an agreement and reliability analysis of using a machine learning-based scaling of Medical Research Council (MRC) proximal scores to evaluate proximal weakness by experts and non-experts. The system trains an ensemble learning model using the signals from sensors attached to the limbs of patients in a neurological intensive care unit. For the agreement analysis, we investigated the percent agreement of MRC proximal scores and Bland-Altman plots of kinematic features between the expert- and non-expert scaling. We also analyzed the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) of kinematic features and Krippendorff’s alpha of the observers’ scaling for the reliability analysis. The mean percent agreement between the expert- and the non-expert scaling was 0.542 for manual scaling and 0.708 for autonomous scaling. The ICCs of kinematic features measured using sensors ranged from 0.742 to 0.850, whereas the Krippendorff’s alpha of manual scaling for the three observers was 0.275. The autonomous assessment system can be utilized by the caregivers, paramedics, or other observers during an emergency to evaluate acute stroke patients.