A Triage Information Agent (TIA) based on the IDA Technology

Busy hospital emergency rooms are concerned with shortening the waiting times of patients, with relieving overburdened physicians, and with reducing the number of mistakes made by triage nurses. Here we propose a software agent, dubbed TIA (Triage Information Agent) that, via dialogue in English, would gather both logistical and medical information from a patient for later use by the triage nurse. TIA would also give tentative, possible diagnoses to the triage nurse, along with recommendations for non-physician care. The IDA Technology makes a software agent such as TIA feasible, at least in principle.