Triage Accuracy of Symptom Checker Apps: 5-Year Follow-up Evaluation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Symptom checkers are digital tools assisting laypersons in self-assessing the urgency and potential causes of their medical complaints. They are widely used but face concerns from both patients and health care professionals, especially regarding their accuracy. A 2015 landmark study substantiated these concerns using case vignettes to demonstrate that symptom checkers commonly err in their triage assessment.

Objective

This study aims to revisit the landmark index study to investigate whether and how symptom checkers' capabilities have evolved since 2015 and how they currently compare with laypersons' stand-alone triage appraisal.

Methods

In early 2020, we searched for smartphone and web-based applications providing triage advice. We evaluated these apps on

SUBMITTER: Schmieding ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9131144 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature