Digital triage: Novel strategies for population health management in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal: Healthcare (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
PMID: 33129176

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges for the U.S. healthcare system due to the staggering mismatch between healthcare system capacity and patient demand. The healthcare industry has been a relatively slow adopter of digital innovation due to the conventional belief that humans need to be at the center of healthcare delivery tasks. However, in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to carry out specific tasks such as pre-hospital triage and enable clinicians to deliver care at scale. Recognizing that the majority of COVID-19 cases are mild and do not require hospitalization, Partners HealthCare (now Mass General Brigham) implemented a digitally-automated pre-hospital triage solution to direct patients to the appropriate care setting before they showed up at the emergency department and clinics, which would otherwise consume resources, expose other patients and staff to potential viral transmission, and further exacerbate supply-and-demand mismatching. Although the use of AI has been well-established in other industries to optimize supply and demand matching, the introduction of AI to perform tasks remotely that were traditionally performed in-person by clinical staff represents a significant milestone in healthcare operations strategy.

Authors

  • Lucinda Lai
    Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, United States of America; Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program, 5 Emerson Place, Suite 101, Boston, MA 02114, United States of America.
  • Kelley A Wittbold
    Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: kwittbold@partners.org.
  • Farah Z Dadabhoy
    Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program, 5 Emerson Place, Suite 101, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: Farah.Dadabhoy@mgh.harvard.edu.
  • Rintaro Sato
    Brigham Digital Innovation Hub, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America.
  • Adam B Landman
    Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Lee H Schwamm
    Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
  • Shuhan He
    Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: She8@partners.org.
  • Rajesh Patel
    Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: RPatel41@bwh.harvard.edu.
  • Nancy Wei
    Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: NCWei@partners.org.
  • Gianna Zuccotti
    Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA; Partners HealthCare Digital Health Initiative, 399 Revolution Drive, Somerville, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: GZuccotti@partners.org.
  • Inga T Lennes
    Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ilennes@partners.org.
  • Danika Medina
    Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: DSMedina@bwh.harvard.edu.
  • Thomas D Sequist
    Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: TSequist@partners.org.
  • Garrett Bomba
    Partners Community Physician Organization, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: GBomba@pmaonline.com.
  • Yonatan G Keschner
    Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program, 5 Emerson Place, Suite 101, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: Yonaton.Keschner@mgh.harvard.edu.
  • Haipeng Mark Zhang
    Brigham Digital Innovation Hub, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America. Electronic address: HZhang37@mgh.harvard.edu.

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