Telephone triage services are becoming increasingly commonplace in modern healthcare. Despite this widespread adoption, health researchers and practitioners seeking to understand evidence-based best practice face several challenges. Firstly, the few systematic reviews available yield small sample sizes, suggesting a small amount of research. Secondly, the rapid pace of development of telephone triage technologies means that there may be temporal validity issues with the available research, given some of this research is relatively old. Thirdly, researchers use different terminologies to describe telephone triage, meaning evidence may be more difficult to find than if consistent terminology was used. This bibliometric analysis therefore is aimed at providing a macroscopic overview of telephone triage, to understand the scale and scope of the available evidence (i.e., where, when, and by whom research is conducted), for interested researchers and practitioners. Additionally, it is aimed at quantifying the prevalence of terms used to describe telephone triage, to recommend consistent terminology for future use, and to improve accessibility of research. To address these aims, literature searches using three different key terms: “telephone triage,” “remote triage,” and “teletriage” were conducted in Scopus and PubMed. Corresponding bibliometric data was visualised and analysed using VOSviewer. This bibliometric review identified 784 papers since the term “telephone triage” first appears in 1980, confirming a paucity of literature in the field. An overview of telephone triage research up to 2021 is provided, which should serve as a useful foundation for future research and application of evidence-based practice. Gaps in telephone triage research are identified, and the use of consistent terminology is encouraged, with the aim of supporting telephone triage researchers in determining research priorities and improving the impact of future studies.

Jill Poots

Jim Morgan

Matteo Curcuruto

BioMed Research International

BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 是一份经过同行评审的开放获取期刊，发表原创研究文章、评论文章和临床研究，涵盖生命科学和医学领域的广泛主题。该杂志分为55个学科领域。

BioMed Research International is a peer-reviewed open access journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, and clinical studies covering a wide range of topics in the life sciences and medicine. The journal is divided into 55 subject areas.

《BioMed Research International》是一份经过同行评审的开放获取期刊，专注于发表原创研究文章、评论文章和临床研究，涵盖生命科学和医学领域的广泛主题。该期刊分为55个学科领域。

Category	Quartile
生物学	3
生物学, 生物工程与应用微生物	3
生物学, 医学研究与实验	4

A Bibliometric Analysis of Telephone Triage Research to 2021 Using VOSviewer

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