Guide to virtual triage symptom checkers

With pressure on healthcare systems to address a growing staffing shortage these digital tools offer a promising solution to reduce waiting times, increase engagement, and navigate patients to the right care at the right time.

But what are virtual triage symptom checkers? What features do they have? And how do they optimize the offerings of health plans, public health systems, healthcare providers, and other healthcare organizations?

Let’s dive in!

What is a virtual triage symptom checker?

A symptom checker and virtual triage tool is a digital healthcare solution that helps patients or members analyze their symptoms and guides them to the most appropriate level of care. The terminology differs between companies, however, whether it’s called a symptom checker, a virtual triage tool, or a virtual triage symptom checker, they ultimately perform a similar function—as a digital front door for healthcare services. Throughout this article we will use all terminology, however, we are referring to the same kind of digital solution.

A virtual triage symptom checker is a tool that’s available online via apps, patient portals, and member zones, amongst others, and offers 24/7 access to healthcare information.

There are various symptom checker tools on the market, each with varying accuracy, functionality, and features. However, they typically consist of an interview-style survey that guides the user through a series of questions related to their current health symptoms to determine the most appropriate level of care for that person.

Why use a symptom checker and virtual triage tool?

One study shows that 74% of patients don’t know the right level of care for their needs. A symptom checker and virtual triage tool is ideal for determining the possible cause of symptoms when a person is unsure of the type of medical care they need, if any, and directing patients to the right care setting.

Using an advanced symptom checker and virtual triage tool users can run a symptom assessment and receive accurate healthcare information and guidance from any location.

This is useful to the patient/member as they can receive healthcare information 24/7 from the comfort of their homes, allowing them to connect with their health plan or provider quickly and easily.

For healthcare organizations they benefit from improved patient engagement while keeping costs to a minimum. Virtual triage helps to adjust a patient’s care-seeking behavior, by navigating them to the best possible care-setting for their needs, as well as allowing the provider to gather important healthcare data, which can help with risk stratification.

Is virtual triage safe and accurate?

It’s crucial to ensure the safety and accuracy of any medical diagnosis, advice, or information. Here, it’s important to point out that symptom checker and virtual triage tools are currently not supposed to be used for medical diagnosis. These tools are here to give healthcare information and to guide patients to the right level of care for their needs—the appropriate medical professional will then be able to diagnose the patient.

Globally recognized certifications and regulations for virtual triage

When choosing a virtual triage tool for personal use or as an integrated tool within a health plan, healthcare provider, or public health system, there are a few things to look out for that can attest to its accuracy and safety.

• Is it a certified medical device?

• Is it developed in compliance with HIPAA requirements?

• Is it developed in compliance with GDPR regulations?

Evidence-based research for virtual triage

In addition to answering these questions above, it’s a good idea to check any peer-reviewed research conducted by the company or by external sources. Objective research into the reliability, accuracy, and safety of symptom checkers is not only an excellent source of evidence it can also help prove the ROI for healthcare organizations looking to invest in the technology.

Clinically-validated virtual triage

The best virtual triage symptom checkers are created with a team of medical professionals at the center. The skills of the software engineers, developers, and AI experts, combined with the expertise of the medical community, help to create an accurate and safe virtual triage solution.

Features of symptom checker and virtual triage solutions

Symptom checker and virtual triage solutions are becoming more common in the healthcare space. As such, each tool by each company offers slightly different features.

Symptom checker interview

Calling this a ‘feature’ might be a stretch as it’s essentially the main purpose of this digital solution. However, we’ve included it here just to give a few more details of just how the interview typically functions.

The user enters the symptom checker tool and indicates what symptoms they are currently experiencing. This could be, ‘runny nose’, ‘sore throat’, or ‘fever’, for example. The symptom checker will then ask a series of questions related to the symptoms provided. For example, ‘how long have you had a runny nose?’, ‘what is your current temperature?’.

With the best symptom checkers the interview will be dynamic, meaning that the next question the user receives will depend on the answer given to the previous questions. In this way, the interview follows a natural course, similar to how a patient would interact with their physician.

Interviews vary in length and style depending on the symptom checker tool and the symptoms that the user enters. Advanced symptom checkers might also ask about a person’s medical history, family medical history, and/or current medication.

At the end of the interview, the symptom checker suggests what might be the cause of the symptoms (possible condition) and recommends a suitable course of action (virtual triage recommendation).

Virtual triage recommendation

A virtual triage recommendation is a common feature of symptom checker tools. The recommendation appears once the user has completed their symptom assessment interview and aims to guide them to the most appropriate care setting based on the information they have provided. Common triage recommendations include, but are not limited to, ‘go to the emergency room’, ‘book an appointment’, ‘self-care at home’.

Possible conditions

Following the interview, the symptom checker tool typically provides a list of possible conditions. The number of conditions listed will depend on the specific application. This list of conditions refers to what the symptom checker believes to be the likely cause of the users’ symptoms, such as ‘common cold’.

Patient education articles

Patient education articles are great for people wanting to learn more about healthcare condition. They aren’t a standard feature, but some symptom checkers provide literature that helps the user understand various healthcare conditions and gives tips about how to alleviate symptoms, what to look out for, and the best course of action.

Virtual triage integrated booking system

When combined with a healthcare provider, health plan, public health system, or similar, some symptom checker and virtual triage tools offer the user the opportunity to book an appointment at the relevant care setting. This feature is particularly handy as it ensures the user is directed to the right level of in-network care and allows them to seek follow-up advice from a medical professional.

Patient data transfer to physician’s office

Some virtual triage tools have the ability to allow data sharing between the tool itself and the physician’s office. With these advanced symptom checker and virtual triage tools, the information provided in the symptom checker interview will be transferred to the user’s physician. Allowing the physician to have a pre-populated set of notes to understand their patient’s condition before the visit. The way that this information is sent and received varies, although some digital solutions can integrate with popular patient data systems, such as Electronic Health Records in the US.

Symptom checker input

The format of how a person enters their symptoms into a symptom checker varies with different applications and devices. Common input methods include typing the symptoms into a search box, clicking a diagram to show where on the body a person experiences symptoms, selecting answers from multiple-choice questions, typing messages to a chatbot, or talking to the chatbot via a microphone.

Application of virtual triage across the healthcare industry

Virtual triage for health plans

Health plans and private medical insurance companies use virtual triage to engage their members, guide them to appropriate in-network care, and offer information about how members can self-care at home. Health plans also benefit from member-sourced data, which helps them improve their risk stratification and develop targeted programs, such as vaccination schemes or preventative health services.

Read: Virtual triage for health plans: 9 benefits that redefine care

Virtual triage for public health and governments

For public health systems, such as the NHS in the UK, there are many benefits of virtual triage symptom checkers. Virtual triage can help public health systems increase access to healthcare services, including preventative care services, in order to improve population health. They can use virtual triage to engage people 24/7 and guide them to the correct care setting, possibly reducing the overutilization of and reliance on emergency departments. Public health systems also benefit greatly from patient data, which helps large systems understand population health risks and be proactive in the strategies for preventative services.

Virtual triage for healthcare providers

Healthcare providers deploy virtual triage as a digital front door for their patients. By offering patients access to a symptom checker they are able to offer support 24/7, reduce administrative burden via self-triage and pre-populated physician notes, and keep patients in-network by connecting them to the services they require.

Virtual triage for telemedicine

Many telemedicine providers utilize virtual triage to enhance their patient acquisition by offering a self-service tool for 24/7 support. Telemedicine companies can connect a symptom checker to their digital services to offer support for the whole patient journey. They benefit from data transfer to reduce administrative burden, as well as optimizing services by driving patients to various in-network services.

Challenges of virtual triage symptom checkers

While symptom checkers offer promising benefits—like reducing healthcare waiting times and offering 24/7 support—their success hinges on addressing accuracy, trust, legal, ethical, and accessibility concerns.

Accuracy of virtual triage

Virtual triage tools are still evolving, and one of the major challenges they face is ensuring accuracy in symptom detection. These tools rely on algorithms and data inputs, which can sometimes lead to errors. For instance, there's a risk of either overestimating mild symptoms, leading to unnecessary panic, or underestimating severe symptoms, resulting in dangerous delays in seeking treatment. Unlike human clinicians who have medical skills, symptom checkers lack the nuances to consider and interpret all factors, including non-verbal clues.

Many healthtech companies, including Infermedica, conduct regular objective research and case studies to determine and improve the accuracy of their virtual triage tools.

Legal & ethical considerations of symptom checkers

Symptom checkers introduce complex legal and ethical issues, particularly concerning liability. If a tool provides incorrect advice that leads to harm, it raises questions about who is responsible—the developers, healthcare providers, or the end-user? Concerns also emerge around privacy, as these tools typically collect sensitive health data. Ensuring that data is used appropriately and stored securely is critical, especially with increasing concerns over cyber threats and misuse of personal health information. The regulation of artificial intelligence within healthcare is also a top priority.

Trust in virtual triage

While some users are comfortable relying on technology, many are hesitant to trust virtual tools over a human healthcare provider. People are naturally wary of automated systems, especially when it comes to something as critical as their health. Lack of trust can stem from unfamiliarity with the technology, past negative experiences, or fear of inaccurate diagnoses. Building trust in healthcare AI trust requires healthtech companies to be transparent about their processes, have reliable data, and work seamlessly with human healthcare providers when necessary.

Health equity

Another major challenge is ensuring that virtual triage tools are accessible to all segments of the population. People without regular access to the internet, those who have limited digital literacy, and older adults may struggle to use these platforms. Additionally, language barriers and cultural differences can impact the effectiveness of symptom checkers. For instance, symptom descriptions may vary across cultures, and people may not feel comfortable disclosing personal health information through a digital interface.