Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42506756›Full record

ReviewTropical medicine and infectious disease2026

Artificial Intelligence Tools in Pre-Travel Health Consultations: A Scoping Review of Clinical Evidence, Implementation Gaps, and Emerging Opportunities.

Haider Saddam Qasim, Maree Donna Simpson

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Tropical medicine and infectious disease, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Haider Saddam QasimSchool of Medical Sciences and Dentistry, Charles Sturt University, Orange Campus, Leeds Parade, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.
Maree Donna SimpsonSchool of Medical Sciences and Dentistry, Charles Sturt University, Orange Campus, Leeds Parade, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPre-travel health consultations require individualised risk assessment across itinerary, destination, traveller characteristics, vaccine and medication history, comorbidities, pregnancy and immune status, activities, and access to care. Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), may support pre-consultation education, structured history collection, guideline retrieval, multilingual communication and post-consultation reinforcement, but unsafe use may introduce hallucinated, outdated or insufficiently personalised recommendations.

objectivesThis scoping review maps the current evidence on AI tools relevant to pre-travel health consultations, characterises implementation gaps, identifies patient-safety risks and proposes a supervised implementation model for travel medicine clinics. Original contribution: Unlike previous reviews of clinical AI, patient-education LLMs or chatbots in chronic illness, this is the first scoping review focused specifically on AI in pre-travel consultations. It uniquely combines a five-tier evidence hierarchy that separates direct travel-medicine AI evidence from indirect clinical-AI safety and equity evidence, and provides a travel-medicine-specific clinical safety risk taxonomy and a supervised implementation framework anchored to authoritative travel-medicine guidance and current AI regulatory regimes.

methodsA scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR reporting, using a Population-Concept-Context eligibility framework and a targeted retrieval in May 2026 covering January 2017 to May 2026. Sources were screened and charted by a single reviewer using a structured eligibility checklist. Quality and applicability were appraised conceptually using MMAT, AMSTAR 2 and JBI text-and-opinion criteria, with GRADE-informed certainty.

resultsOf 70 records identified, 11 were included: four direct pre-travel AI sources, one adjacent travel-related decision-support study, four guideline and context sources and two clinical LLM safety sources. The only patient-level implementation involved 26 travellers using a GPT-4 Travel Clinic Assistant in Singapore, where physicians and travellers reported acceptability and workflow benefit but objective effectiveness outcomes were not measured. Broader clinical LLM evidence indicates heterogeneous evaluation methods, vulnerability to hallucinated guidelines, and accuracy that varies widely across model versions and specialties.

conclusionsCurrent evidence supports supervised AI augmentation of pre-travel consultations but does not support autonomous AI-led vaccine selection, malaria prophylaxis, contraindication screening or individualised travel-risk clearance. Near-term deployment should be restricted to clinician-supervised education, structured intake, source-grounded guideline retrieval, after-visit reinforcement and escalation-triggered workflow support. Priority research includes travel-medicine-specific hallucination audits; equity testing in visiting-friends-and-relatives, migrant, older-adult, First Nations Australian, and Pacific Islander travellers; and prospective trials reported under CONSORT-AI, SPIRIT-AI and TRIPOD + AI.

Indexed as

artificial intelligenceclinical decision supportdigital healthlarge language modelspatient safetypre-travel health consultationstravel medicine

Identifiers

PMID42506756
PMCPMC13431339

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.