Next Generation Guidelines: Reducing Patterns of Recurrent Tele-triage Errors After four decades of working in, and witnessing the idiosyncratic evolution of telehealth and teletriage, Ms. Wheeler believes that the industry has overlooked several key challenges to safety — system error and recurrent error. She believes that a new generation of tele-triage software will render current algorithmic software obsolete. Hi-tech tele-triage will incorporate generative AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, biotelemetry and patient wearables. In addition, this emerging decision-support software will be evidence-based, reliable and valid. Early hard-copy decision-support guidelines were compared to “standing orders”. In effect, some compared teletriage guidelines to having a physician-advisor at one’s side. Soon, high-tech software guidelines will serve as a type of "decision support co-pilot" for the challenging, uncertain work of remote assessments. The hybrid technology will be reliable, user friendly and evidence based. Ms. Wheeler is a content expert with an operational strategy, in search of a software partner to collaboratively develop such a prototype. Wheeler’s envisioned prototype is intended to reduce both system error and "patterns of recurrent mistakes" (Gawande) that lead to delays in care and diagnosis that result in medical malpractice, patient injuries and death.

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