Virtual Triage Early Detection of Inappropriate Care Seeking Intent Among Patients With Life-Threatening Cardiac Symptoms

Abstract

Reports indicate that only 19% of patients with prodromal symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest seek the appropriate level of care acuity, which may be due partly to individuals being unable to distinguish which acute symptoms require urgent care. This study evaluated the degree to which patient-users of artificial intelligence-based virtual triage presenting with prodromal symptoms of a possibly life-threatening cardiac condition intended to seek the needed emergency care. A dataset of 746,282 virtual triage patient-users was examined to assess the characteristics of those reporting symptoms of potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions with no intention to seek emergency care. Of 3,968 patient-users over age 35 with severe cardiac symptoms, 89.4% did not plan to seek emergency care. A majority of patient-users did not appear to understand the level of care acuity to seek, or planned to engage self-care or to visit an outpatient physician, instead of seeking emergency care. These findings reinforce the need for much improved patient education among patients at risk for potentially life-threatening cardiac symptoms which require urgent medical care. Virtual triage (or symptom checkers) with care referral may have value in patient engagement and education to achieve this objective.