Artificial Intelligence Applications in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Global Scoping Review of Diagnostic, Symptom-Based, and Outcome Prediction Approaches

Abstract

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) represents a significant global health burden, characterized by complex diagnostic and management challenges. Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a powerful opportunity to enhance clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes by leveraging complex health data. Objectives: This scoping review aims to systematically map the existing literature on AI applications in COPD. The primary objective is to identify, categorize, and summarize research into three key domains: (1) Diagnosis, (2) Clinical Symptoms, and (3) Clinical Outcomes. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley framework. A comprehensive search of major scientific databases, including PubMed, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar, was performed. The Population–Concept–Context (PCC) criteria included patients with COPD (Population), the use of AI (Concept), and applications in healthcare settings (Context). A global search strategy was employed with no geographic restrictions. Studies were included if they were original research articles published in English. The extracted data were charted and classified into the three predefined categories. Results: A total of 120 studies representing global distribution were included. Most datasets originated from Asia (predominantly China and India) and Europe (notably Spain and the UK), followed by North America (USA and Canada). There was a notable scarcity of data from South America and Africa. The findings indicate a strong trend towards the use of deep learning (DL), particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for medical imaging, and tree-based machine learning (ML) models like CatBoost for clinical data. The most common data types were electronic health records, chest CT scans, and audio recordings. While diagnostic applications are well-established and report high accuracy, research into symptom analysis and phenotype identification is an emerging area. Key gaps were identified in the lack of prospective validation and clinical implementation studies. Conclusions: Current evidence shows that AI offers promising applications for COPD diagnosis, outcome prediction, and symptom analysis, but most reported models remain at an early stage of maturity due to methodological limitations and limited external validation. Future research should prioritize rigorous clinical evaluation, the development of explainable and trustworthy AI systems, and the creation of standardized, multi-modal datasets to support reliable and safe translation of these technologies into routine practice.