E-consultation as existential media

Exploring doctor-patient 'digital thrownness' in Danish general practice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2250403
AutoresMaja Klausen (0000-0002-2388-6399, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science University of Southern Denmark Odense Denmark, autor de correspondencia), Elisabeth Assing Hvidt (0000-0003-3762-8478, Research Unit of General Practice Department of Public Health University of Southern Denmark Odense Denmark)
Año2024
Volumen46
Número8
Páginas1849-1863
Fecha de publicación2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.13823
PMID39088382
OpenAlexW4401212502
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas41

In this article we use an existential media framework to explore the asynchronous, written and digital form of GP-patient communication that takes place through e-consultations in a Danish general practice context. This approach acknowledges e-consultation as more than a tool for information delivery and frames GP and patient not as skilful media users but as dependent co-existers: Both thrown into and trying to navigate the digital healthcare ecology. Through a thematic analysis of 38 semi-structured qualitative interviews with patients and GPs we carve out three themes unpacking the existential dimensions of e-consultation: 1. Patient and GP are placed in a Culture of non-stop connectivity and we show the ambivalences arising herein fostering both relief, reassurance and new insecurities. 2. Ethical challenges of responsible co-existence points to dilemmas of boundary setting and caring for self and co-exister in the digital encounter. 3. We-experiences illustrates the potential of e-consultation to signal GP presence, even when the GP is silent. We also discuss the existential ethics of care emerging from the contemporary digital healthcare ecology and call for empirically grounded studies of the existential dimensions tied to encounters in contemporary digital care infrastructures

Affordance · Context (archaeology · Danish · Digital media · Epistemology · Existentialism · Health care · Linguistics · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Empathy and Medical Education · History · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare · Psychology