Machine learning to predict hospital admission at triage in paediatric emergency care: A meta-analysis

= 100%). CONCLUSION: ML models have potential for paediatric ED triage. Standardized methods, explainable AI, and prospective validation are essential for clinical use. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Traditional triage in paediatric emergency departments may have limitations in accurately predicting hospital admissions. • Machine learning models are increasingly applied to improve risk stratification in clinical settings. WHAT IS NEW: • This review shows ML models can predict paediatric ED admissions with high AUCs (up to 0.97). • Random forest algorithms using vital signs and triage data performed best.