Artificial Intelligence-Based Application Provides Accurate Medical Triage Advice When Compared to Consensus Decisions of Healthcare Providers

Cureus. 2021 Aug 6;13(8):e16956. doi: 10.7759/cureus.16956. eCollection 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Accurate medical triage is essential for improving patient outcomes and efficient healthcare delivery. Patients increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications to access healthcare information, including medical triage advice. We assessed the accuracy of triage decisions provided by an AI-based application. We presented 50 clinical vignettes to the AI-based application, seven emergency medicine providers, and five internal medicine physicians. We compared the triage decisions of the AI-based application to those of the individual providers as well as their consensus decisions. When compared to the human clinicians' consensus triage decisions, the AI-based application performed equal or better than individual human clinicians.

Keywords: artificial intelligence in medicine; clinical decision support system; clinical variability; healthcare application; healthcare expenditure; misdiagnosis; triage; value in healthcare.