Virtual Triage using the Isabel Symptom Checker
Isabel’s ‘Where to get care’ virtual triage tool helps you decide where you should seek care based on your symptoms. The results are displayed on a bar with a gradient to indicate the seriousness of your symptoms and the appropriate place to seek care.
Online Remote Triage using Isabel
Simply try your best to describe the symptoms that are affecting you and enter them into the virtual triage tool along with your age and sex. You can describe your symptoms in your own words or select symptoms from Isabel’s list.
I have been dealing with these symptoms for months. I get different opinions from 4 different doctors, each one different from the other. This finally gives me a new direction to follow.
‘Where to get care’ virtual triage
Next answer carefully the seven questions about your symptoms. These are questions any doctor would routinely ask you during your examination.
The online triage questions ask you about how quickly your symptoms developed, how long you have had them and whether they have changed recently together with additional questions about how much pain you are in and whether your symptoms are affecting your ability to carry out your normal activities. Finally, the online triage questions ask you if you are taking any medication for the symptoms and whether you feel better after taking them plus whether you have any serious, long term conditions. This really means conditions such as diabetes, cancer or a heart condition.
‘Get results’ – online triage
The online triage tool will then combine the Symptom Checker results and your answers to the questions to calculate the score on the gradient bar, to help you decide where to seek care either via telemedicine, family physician, urgent care or from the emergency services. This feature is a suggestion of where you should seek care but should not be relied on over and above your own instinct and judgement. At this point, you will be asked if you wish to view possible conditions associated with your symptoms.
A key difference between the Isabel online triage tool versus advice given in many chatbot type symptom checkers is that Isabel’s is based on your overall clinical picture as opposed to chatbot symptom checkers that often require you to first select a diagnosis before getting advice. These tools are effectively asking you to diagnose yourself before they tell you where to go!
I have been able to narrow down possible causes for my symptoms, and the meter seems to match my thoughts on urgency level. Nice tool without trying to diagnose. It points to two possibilities I felt were the issue. Now for the Dr.'s office.
- United States, 2018
