Journal Club: Performance of national COVID-19 ‘symptom checkers’: a comparative case simulation study

Join authors Daniel Goyal, Fatma Mansab and Sohail Bhatti from the University of Gibraltar and Gibraltar Health Authority (in discussion with Katie MacLure (BCS Health & Care Scotland) for our next live BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) BMJ HCI Journal Club hosted by Digital Health.

Performance of national COVID-19 ‘symptom checkers’: a comparative case simulation study https://informatics.bmj.com/content/28/1/e100187

This study compares performance of symptom checkers across different countries, revealing marked variation between national symptom checkers. The symptom checkers employed by Japan and Singapore are twice as likely to triage cases onward for clinical assessment than those of the USA or UK. The US and UK symptom checkers frequently triaged simulated cases of sepsis, bacterial pneumonia and severe COVID-19 to stay home with no further healthcare contact.  We discuss the key aspects of the well-performing triage systems.