Around 20% of visits to primary care physicians (PCPs) are made by patients with symptoms that resolve spontaneously, and as much as 72% of visits are prompted by acute respiratory symptoms. Excessive and improper use of diagnostic tests is a well-known problem in primary care that increases random outcomes. The same can be said for antibiotic prescription, particularly for respiratory tract infections, which could lead to increased bacterial resistance.
Clinical guidelines and clinical scoring systems may help to standardize diagnosis and treatment, but PCPs report that their low level of applicability, and clinicians' own lack of time, are barriers to their use in practice.
Machine-learning models (MLMs) are one area of artificial intelligence (AI) that can achieve similar or even superior performance, compared with doctors in various clinical settings. These models could be a powerful tool for the medical diagnostic process, with broad fields of application and development in general medicine.
Clinical test notes are a written report in the patient's medical notes. They include the doctor's interpretation of the patient's symptoms and signs, as well as the reasoning in support of the clinical decisions made during the appointment and any subsequent action taken (eg, laboratory tests or X-rays).
Respiratory Symptoms
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