Roadmap towards Future Patient Teleconsultation Experience

Abstract

In healthcare, the doctor-patient interaction is most commonly held in the Consultation Room, which hasn't changed much over the last few decades. However, new technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, speech-to-speech translation, and so on are available now. These developments provide new opportunities to support all processes in the consultation room, of which communication between doctor and patient will be revolutionized. During the pandemic, the benefits and broad prospects of teleconsultation gradually entered the public consciousness and gained acceptance. However, for patients, going to the doctor is about more than just convenience and efficiency. Patients who are ill frequently experience significant anxiety, feeling lost and uncertain about their condition and future plans. According to Tyrer (2013), 10% to 20% of general hospital patients have abnormal health anxiety. As a result, the future of teleconsultation should consider patients' vulnerability and emotional needs.

This project aims to explore how to alleviate patient anxiety in teleconsultation contexts in 2030. The following sub-questions are proposed to structure the final RQ:
SQ-1: What are the key influencing factors of patients’ anxiety?
SQ-2: How can technologies be used to alleviate anxiety? / Where do the design opportunities lie?
SQ-3: How to align the technologies/ideas with the desired future vision?

The project is divided into five stages to answer these questions:

Understand: A literature review and expert interviews will be conducted to fully comprehend the research context. An opportunity map will be presented as the outcome of the first stage of research.

Explore: Future possibilities will be identified through Strategic Trend Research, Technology Scouting, and Future Visioning. At the end of this stage, a desirable future vision will be defined.

Empathy: To gain a deeper understanding of patients, thematic analysis and generative design research methods will be used to both understand current teleconsultation users' experiences and to profile different traits, thereby facilitating concept development.

Develop: At this stage, eight strategy proposals and a design roadmap are created. The roadmap and proposals are spirally iterated through evaluation.

Deliver: An online design guidance toolkit incorporating key project outcomes is being developed to guide designers interested in future teleconsultation experiences through the methods derived from this project step by step. In addition, a final roadmap is provided as the answer to the RQ.

To summarize, this project began by looking for ways to alleviate patient anxiety. However, the developed roadmap and strategy proposals are not only applicable to anxious patients, but also point the way forward for future teleconsultation evolution. That could be because considering any individual's vulnerability is a must-have feature of future healthcare.