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Operations & systems
AI telephone triage protocol for EMS calls
trIAje project: protocol for a retrospective cohort study to optimise AI-assisted telephone triage of time-sensitive conditions in emergency medical services
BMJ Open · 2026-09-28 · Added 6 October 2026
Protocol for the trIAje project, a Spanish retrospective cohort linking 2020–2024 dispatch records, ePCRs and health-registry data to evaluate and then improve AI-assisted telephone triage of time-sensitive conditions using NLP on dispatcher call text.
- Study type
- Other
- Design
- Retrospective cohort study protocol
- Participants
- All calls 2020–2024 coded as unconsciousness, cardiac arrest, respiratory difficulty, chest pain or suspected stroke (number not stated)
- Main finding
- No results yet — will compare machine-learning triage performance against final clinical severity, reporting sensitivity, specificity, under- and over-triage and sex-stratified disparity checks
- Caveat
- Protocol only — no performance data; retrospective Spanish dispatch data may not generalise
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). A trial protocol rather than a result — telephone triage under- and over-triage is the same problem Australian dispatch services face, so this signals what's coming.
Learning goal
Understand how AI-assisted telephone triage may affect under-triage of time-sensitive conditions and sex-based disparities in dispatch care.
More
- Topic: Operations & systems
- Daily scan: 6 October 2026
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