Optimising assessment of breathlessness patients in primary care with computer aided history taking systems (CAHTS)

Research question In patients with breathlessness in the primary care setting will the use of a computer-aided history taking system (CAHTS) compared to usual care lead to better patient assessment?BackgroundPatients spend most of their time outside the examination room. Concurrently, time pressures in primary care consultations contribute to the low prevalence of evidence-based diagnosis and management. One-third of primary care physicians are dissatisfied with the time available and suggest that this compromises the care provided. The use of computer automated history taking systems (CAHTS) may help reduce this gap. Possible methodologyA CAHTS system would need to be developed based on a validated patient history taking algorithm. This system would then be trialled on breathlessness patients presenting in the primary care setting. Outcomes of interest would be concordance between history obtained through CAHTS with face-to-face history taking by comparing samples of recorded history taking with the history taken through CAHTS. Questions to discussResearch questions to discuss include - the availability of validated patient history taking algorithm to be further developed; development of the CAHTS system; implementation and evaluation of CAHTS in the primary care setting. Declaration of Interest References and Clinical Trial Registry Information