Limited evidence of benefits of patient operated intelligent primary care triage tools: findings of a literature review
Open accessAbstract
Introduction: There is consistent evidence that the workload in general practices is substantially increasing. The digitalisation of healthcare including the use of artificial intelligence has been suggested as a solution to this problem. We wanted to explore the features of intelligent online triage tools in primary care by conducting a literature review. Method: A systematic literature search strategy was formulated and conducted in the PubMed database and the Cochrane Library. Articles were selected according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Results and data were systematically extracted and thematically analysed. 17 articles of that reported large multimethod studies or smaller diagnostic accuracy tests on clinical vignettes were included. Reviews and expert opinions were also considered. Results: There was limited evidence on the actual effects and performance of triage tools in primary care. Several aspects can guide further development: concepts of system design, system implementation and diagnostic performance. The most important findings were: a need to formulate evaluation guidelines and regulations; their assumed potential has not yet been met; a risk of increased or redistribution of workloads and the available symptom checker systems seem overly risk averse and should be tested in real-life settings. Conclusion: This review identified several features associated with the design and implementation of intelligent online triage tools in a primary care context, although most of the investigated systems seemed underdeveloped and offered limited benefits. Current online triage systems should not be used by individuals who have reasonable access to traditional healthcare. Systems used should be strictly evaluated and regulated like other medical products.
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Primary care has been slower to realize the benefits of AI.
“Primary care has been slower to realize the benefits of AI. [6][7][8]”
From Clinician Adoption of an Artificial Intelligence Algorithm to Detect Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Primary Care. (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
The Discussion ('Limited evidence'; page unavailable) says the reviewed digital triage systems were immature and that evidence of their benefits in primary care was limited. This supports the idea that benefits had not yet been fully realized for those tools, but the paper does not compare primary care’s pace with other settings or assess AI across primary care generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Gottliebsen, K., & Petersson, G.
- Affiliations
- Herøy Helsesenter, Fosnavåg, Norway
- Department of Medicine and Optometry, eHealthInstitute, Kalmar, Sweden
- Corresponding author
- Petersson, Göran
- Venue
- BMJ Health & Care Informatics
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2020-05
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e100114
- ISSN
- 2632-1009 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7245402
- OpenAlex
- W3022563182
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 0.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMJ Health & Care Informatics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Linnéuniversitetet
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
- Keywords
- primary care, artificial intelligence, symptom checkers, general practitioner workload, diagnostic accuracy, system design, implementation, digitalization of healthcare, risk aversion
- MeSH terms
- Artificial Intelligence, Humans, Primary Health Care, Triage, Workload
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