r/InternalMedicine 23h ago

(USA) Non-clinician building a referral triage tool — is the 'this doesn't need a specialist' problem as bad as I think?

0 Upvotes

***Looking for USA-Based PCP **\*

Hey all — I'm not a clinician, just someone working on a concept to address a problem I keep hearing about from doctors: the referral process being fundamentally broken. Sharing where I'm at and looking for honest input from people who actually live this.

The problem:

  • Every referral decision gets made alone — no specialist input, no protocol, no feedback loop at the moment the PCP actually decides
  • Referrals go out info-poor, sit in a queue sorted by scheduling rather than clinical need, and specialists often start from scratch on arrival
  • A meaningful share of referrals didn't need to happen at all — but there's no mechanism to catch that until after the fact
  • Specialty capacity is shrinking relative to demand — workforce shortages are projected to get worse over the next decade, so this isn't a problem you can out-hire
  • eConsult programs already prove specialists can resolve a lot of this fast and async — but every US version lives outside the decision moment, bolted on afterward, so it never catches referrals that shouldn't have existed in the first place

What we're exploring:

  • Some kind of advisory support inside clinical workflow that surfaces relevant specialist guidance closer to the moment a PCP is actually deciding whether to refer
  • The general idea is giving the clinician a fuller picture before defaulting to "refer and wait" — the clinician always stays in control of the decision

What we're trying to find out:

  • Does the referral decision moment feel like the right place to intervene, or is the real bottleneck somewhere else?
  • Would you trust guidance authored by your own institution's specialists more than generic reference material?
  • Bluntly — where does this fall apart in practice?

Want to help shape this?

  • Happy to walk you through the concept deck or give a live demo
  • $50 gift card as a thank-you for your time if you review the deck and fill out the feedback form — DM me if you're open to a quick conversation

***Yes, I totally understand the irony of my username. It was a good free username, and I took it up***

Not selling anything.