Guidelines for developing digital triage tools to mitigate workload challenges: A scoping review.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human Factors Engineering
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Digital technologies are increasingly used in medical triage to manage healthcare provider workload.
• The impact of these technologies on workload remains poorly understood.
• Existing research lacks systematic evaluation of workload in technology-supported triage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review how workload is conceptualized, addressed, and evaluated in technology-supported medical triage.
• To identify gaps in current evaluation methods for digital triage tools.
• To inform human-centered design and evaluation of these technologies.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review following Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
• Searched six databases from 2020-2025.
• Included 16 empirical studies from various triage settings.

Main Results:

• Workload was mostly used as justification, not an explicit evaluation target.
• Digital technologies were evaluated via self-report or performance metrics, inferring workload effects.
• No studies systematically used physiological workload measures.
• Technologies improved performance but didn't consistently reduce workload, sometimes adding demands.
• Interventions tended to redistribute, not reduce, workload.

Conclusions:

• Current evaluations of digital triage technologies do not adequately capture workload effects.
• There's a need for systematic incorporation of workload measures, including physiological ones.
• Future research should focus on human-centered design and evaluation aligned with technology functions.