Software prototype for triage and instructional for homecare patients

Home healthcare services were created with the aim of bringing medical services to patients; in this scenario the developments in telemedicine offer significant support, providing or facilitating care and treatments at patient's homes or remote sites. This paper describes the development of a software prototype that enables homecare users, classify their symptoms at home and then apply for the appropriate type of care as indicated by the software. For the development of the software prototype, there were selected the 10 most common reasons of consultation at Empresa de Medicina Integral (EMI) and algorithms were constructed according to the pathophysiology of each symptom associated. Being the doctor present, patients tested prototype before being assisted. For validation, it was calculated kappa coeffiecient. The information given by the software has a aggrement of 92%. According prototype indication 72.5% of patients required medical attention and 27,4% should make phone attention. The most common reasons of consultation were diarrhea and upper respiratory tract symptoms.