Abstract
BackgroundThe Thai medical application for patient triage, namely Triagist, is an mHealth application designed to support the pre-hospital process. However, since the functions of the application that are necessary for the pre-hospital process have been found not to be fully developed, the addition of a back-end system has been considered to increase its performance and usability.ObjectiveTo determine the ability of the previous version to effectively manage the pre-hospital process and analyse the current problems with the pre-hospital operation. Therefore, the new system was developed to support the connection of dispatch centres or operational centres to the Triagist mobile application and system evaluation.MethodDesign thinking methodology was used to analyse, design and develop a patient triage system to support the pre-hospital process in Thailand based on users’ requirements. 68 active members of the rescue teams and emergency medical staff in Chiang Mai and Lampang provinces were recruited to test the reliability of the system based on a prototype application.ResultsThe new medical mobile application for patient triage in Thailand was validated for use due to containing the two essential functions of Initial Dispatch Code (IDC) geolocation and IDC management. When the system was tested by emergency staff who were responsible for using it, those with the least experience were found to use it better than their highly experienced colleagues. Moreover, in cases where the system had been implemented, it was found to determine the frequency of symptoms, the time period during which cases occurred, and the density of cases in each area.ConclusionThis system, which has been developed based on the use of smart technology, will play an important role in supporting emergency services in Thailand by enhancing the efficiency of the pre-hospital process. Emergency centres will receive IDC information from the geolocation system so that they can determine patients’ location without undue delay. Emergency services will be able to rapidly prepare the necessary resources and administrative tasks will be supported by linking the dispatch centre to central rescue teams.
Highlights
The Thai medical application for patient triage, namely Triagist, is an mHealth application designed to support the pre-hospital process
The new medical mobile application for patient triage in Thailand was validated for use due to containing the two essential functions of Initial Dispatch Code (IDC) geolocation and IDC management
Emergency services will be able to rapidly prepare the necessary resources and administrative tasks will be supported by linking the dispatch centre to central rescue teams
Summary
The Thai medical application for patient triage, namely Triagist, is an mHealth application designed to support the pre-hospital process. Many systems have been developed to enable first responders or emergency staff to rapidly assess patients’ condition in order to triage them at each stage of healthcare management [11,12,13,14] because triage is the key to effective emergency medicine management [15]. Several smart systems have been widely used in order to reduce the time consumed in the triage process based on supporting medical staff ’s rapid decision-making [17] and patients’ self-triage [18]
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