Patient Navigation Behavior in a Symptom-Based Self-Triage Mobile App for Direct-to-Consumer Urgent Care:...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Telemedicine
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Patient interaction patterns within mobile health app self-triage modules during telemedicine are not well understood.
• Optimizing virtual care pathways relies on understanding user navigation in self-triage tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze user navigation behaviors within a symptom-based self-triage mobile app algorithm.
• To evaluate user interactions during remote urgent care assessments via telemedicine.

Main Methods:

• Observational, retrospective study of adult users of the Einstein Conecta telemedicine app (May 2022 - Dec 2023).
• Analysis of user interactions including triage flows accessed, screens viewed, screen returns, and time spent.
• Descriptive statistical methods were employed for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Over 62,000 users initiated nearly 200,000 self-triage flows, with 27.9% accessing four or more flows.
• Users recommended for emergency department referral were more likely to initiate subsequent flows.
• Returning to previous screens was infrequent (8% of users), with average time per screen around 9.5 seconds.

Conclusions:

• Most users explored alternative pathways beyond initial triage recommendations, particularly when an emergency department referral was suggested.
• User navigation suggests a need to refine telemedicine self-triage mechanisms to align with observed behaviors.
• Understanding these navigation patterns is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of virtual care.