Research Studies
Peer-reviewed publications
Peer-reviewed research is essential for improving the quality, accuracy, and safety of healthcare technology. Here we present research papers that showcase the value and impact of Infermedica’s AI-powered solutions for healthcare professionals and decision-makers.
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PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES
An analysis of virtual triage utilization by pregnant women prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Jaszczak et al. (2024) / Frontiers in Global Women’s Health
The study examined data gathered via an online survey of 36,910 patients who reported pregnancy. The survey was completed between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2022. Descriptive statistics and trend analyses were used to identify significant shifts in symptom reporting and user demographics.
Highlights
COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced the use of VT by pregnant women
In the first six months of 2020, there was an increase in pregnant users of 213%
The percentage of pregnant users grew from 0.32% in the first half of 2019 to 0.85% in late 2021
The findings underline the significant role of digital health tools in maintaining access to health information during times of crisis.
Virtual triage early detection of inappropriate care-seeking intent among patients with life-threatening cardiac symptoms
Gellert et al. (2024) / Medinformatics
This study analyzed the care-seeking behavior of 746,282 Symptomate users with life-threatening cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath. It revealed that 76.4% of users misjudged the seriousness of their symptoms, often seeking inappropriate care. Virtual triage can guide patients to emergency care, potentially reducing severe health outcomes and healthcare costs.
Highlights
76.4% of users with symptoms of a heart attack didn't know the right level of care or planned to seek inappropriate care
This was observed across all age groups
By gender, there was a slightly higher percentage among female users
Early detection through virtual triage could significantly lower the risk of severe health outcomes, contributing to potential cost savings related to delayed or incorrect care.
Using AI-based virtual triage to improve acuity-level alignment of patient care seeking in an ambulatory care setting
Gellert et al. (2024) / International Journal of Healthcare
A study evaluating the impact of AI-based virtual triage (VT) on patient care-seeking behavior in an outpatient care setting. Researchers analyzed 8,088 online encounters to understand how VT influenced patient behavior regarding care levels.
Highlights
35% of patients changed their care-seeking behavior
12.5% decrease in video and in-person consultations
19.1% increase in patient engagement through virtual care
The results show how VT helped reduce unnecessary in-person visits, streamline care delivery, and ensure patients received suitable care, potentially improving overall healthcare efficiency in ambulatory settings.
The potential of virtual triage AI to improve early detection, care acuity alignment, and emergent care referral of life-threatening conditions
Gellert et al. (2024) / Frontiers in Public Health
A study evaluating the extent to which users intended to seek emergency care when reporting symptoms of five severe/acute conditions to a virtual triage (VT) engine. The five conditions in question have high potential mortality; heart attack, stroke, asthma, pneumonia, and pulmonary embolism (PE). The study highlights misalignments between perceived seriousness and the actual risk of life-threatening symptoms and how VT could be used to address this.
Highlights
76% of users with symptoms of a heart attack didn't plan urgent care help
33.5% of users with symptoms of investigated acute conditions hadn’t planned medical consultation before completing virtual triage
2 in every 1000 virtual triages performed could lead to life-saving decisions
Early detection of emergency conditions can significantly reduce the risk of severe health outcomes and death. This study shows the strong influence of VT on modifying care-seeking behavior, which could result in reduced healthcare expenses due to timely intervention.
A comparative performance analysis of live clinical triage using rules-based triage protocols versus artificial intelligence-based automated virtual triage
Gellert et al. (2023) / Journal of Hospital Administration
A comparison of the triage care referral accuracy of AI-based virtual triage to rules-based triage protocols (RBTP). The study concludes that Infermedica’s AI tools perform comparably to the Schmitt-Thompson protocols — the industry gold standard for patient triage.
Highlights
Infermedica and Schmitt-Thompson produced zero critical mis-triage situations — cases where an “emergency” is identified as “self-care”
Infermedica provides triage advice as safe as Schmitt-Thompson
Infermedica collects 4x more patient initial symptoms than Schmitt-Thompson for more data-driven assistance
Infermedica provides reliable and accurate results and increases triage levels in case of risk factors (especially for children)
How Virtual Triage Can Improve Patient Experience and Satisfaction: A Narrative Review and Look Forward
Gellert et al. (2023) / PubMed Central (PMC), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Review and synthesis of the literature on patient experience and satisfaction as informed by emerging evidence, indicating potential for virtual triage (VT) to favorably impact these clinical care objectives and outcomes.
Highlights
Delivery of earlier and faster, more acuity-level-appropriate care
Digital triage as a front door to reduce a patient’s need to visit a medical facility for low-acuity conditions
The use of VT to enhance clinical effectiveness through early detection and referral
VT as an opportunity for providers to make patient health care experiences more personalized
The Role of Virtual Triage in Improving Clinician Experience and Satisfaction: A Narrative Review
Gellert et al. (2023) / PubMed, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
A review and synthesis of evidence on clinician satisfaction indicating a potential for virtual triage (VT) to favorably impact clinician experience, sense of effectiveness, efficiency, and reduction of administrative task burden.
Highlights
Importance of clinician experience and satisfaction to organizational performance
Contributors to poor clinician satisfaction
Current and potential role of virtual triage in delivering positive clinician experiences and streamlining communication with patients
Benefits of using virtual triage technology for healthcare delivery organizations in general and with respect specifically to improving clinician experience and satisfaction
Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Recommendations From an Online Chat-Based AI Model
Gellert, G. A., & Jaszczak, J. (2023) / Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
A response to a recent report discussing how a dialogue-based AI model can assist clinical workflows. The comment and subsequent response from the authors address the safe use of AI and large language models (LLMs) in healthcare.
Highlights
Generative AI vs. Symbolic AI in healthcare applications
Potential and limitations of large language models (LLMs)
Investment and research into healthcare AI
A Multinational Survey of Patient Utilization of and Value Conveyed through Virtual Symptom Triage and Healthcare Referral
Gellert et al. (2023) / Frontiers in Public Health
A study based on an online survey of 2,113 web-based patient-users of Symptomate to describe the use patterns, impact, and derived patient-user value of a virtual triage/symptom checker.
Highlights
80.1% of patients indicated substantial overall satisfaction with the experience and value delivered
80% of users indicated that they will use triage recurrently in the future
25.4% decrease in post-triage patients who remained uncertain of their care path
The quality of diagnosis and triage advice provided by free online symptom checkers and apps in Australia
Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment
This Systematic Performance Case Study presents the investigation of 36 symptom checkers providing a medical diagnosis or triage advice, where each was tested with 48 medical condition vignettes (1,170 diagnosis vignette tests and 688 triage vignette tests).
Highlights
Symptomate has the highest accuracy results:
77% correct possible conditions listed in the top 3 results
61% correct possible conditions listed as first
81% correct possible conditions listed in the top 10 results
Diagnostic Accuracy of Web-Based COVID-19 Symptom Checkers: Comparison Study
Data Science Department, Symptoma, Vienna, Austria
Medical Department, Symptoma, Attersee, Austria
Department of Internal Medicine, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
The study compares 10 web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers by assessing 50 COVID-19 case reports alongside 410 non–COVID-19 control cases. The aim of this study is to evaluate and the diagnostic accuracies of web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers.
Highlights
A good balance between sensitivity and specificity achieved only by two symptom checkers – COVID-RA by Infermedica and Symptoma
Infermedica and Symptoma were ranked at the top in terms of the accuracy for COVID-19 evaluations
Virtual Care to Increase Military Medical Centre Capacity in the Primary Health Care Setting: A Prospective Self-Controlled Pilot Study of Symptoms Collection and Telemedicine
Singapore Armed Forces Medical Corps, Singapore
The study focuses on virtual care (VC) at a military medical center. 28 patients underwent on-premises VC, comprising of digital symptoms collection and telemedicine, in addition to the usual in-person physician consultation. While waiting for the telemedicine consultation, patients used the Symptom Checker app. This bespoke web application utilized Infermedica API.
Highlights
85.8% of patients were satisfied with the virtual care experience
85.7% of patients agreed that the symptom checker was easy to use
Both patients and physicians felt that the symptom checker allowed for clearer and faster consultations
Heuristic Evaluation of COVID-19 Chatbots
University of Luxembourg
The results of a heuristic review of 24 COVID-19 chatbots on different channels (webchat vs messengers) for diverse topics (symptom-checker vs FAQ) and with varying interaction styles (visual-centric vs content-centric vs conversation-centric).
Highlights
Infermedica ranked in the top 3 best scoring chatbots
Infermedica as one of the web chat bots with the most attractive graphical user interface
Application of a web-based self-assessment triage tool during the COVID-19 pandemic: descriptive study
Provincial Specialist Hospital them. J. Gromkowski, Wrocław
Infermedica, Wrocław
Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław
This paper demonstrates experiences with the COVID-19 risk assessment (CRA) tool. The study tries to determine who the user of the web-based COVID-19 triage app is and compares this group with patients in the infectious diseases ward’s admission room to evaluate who could benefit from implementing the COVID-19 online symptom checker as a remote triage solution.
Highlights
The CRA tool screened a vast audience—248,862 people with potentially worrisome symptoms indicating COVID-19
Getting results and next-step recommendations provided reassurance and evidence-based information
The CRA tool served as a preclinical triage for individuals with worrisome symptoms
How we develop, maintain, and test our technologies
A carefully curated medical information database lies at the very heart of the Infermedica platform. Get a better understanding of the processes used to build, maintain, and test our technologies.
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Content Development Process
The creation, validation, and maintenance of the medical knowledge base follow rigorous and well-established procedures.
Acceptance Test Cases
Learn how we test the quality of our inference engine by carrying out assessments on thousands of well-documented clinical cases.
Certifications
Selected modules marked as class I medical device
Compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation
Compliant with standards for patient data protection
Quality Management System compliant with PN-EN ISO 13485:2016
Processes and Development Procedures certified with ISO 27001:2017
The proof of trust
The excellence of Infermedica’s technology is confirmed by real-life implementations in ecosystems of leading healthcare service providers.
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