Strategies to Reduce Uncertainty on the Diagnosis Quality in the Context of Virtual Consultation: Reviews of Virtual Consultation Systems

Abstract

The research literature on virtual consultation is sparse while video consultation between clinician and patient are technically possible and increasingly acceptable. With virtual consultation, people can remotely visit doctors anytime anywhere and access many options of doctors. However, it’s surprising that not so many patients in real life as expected are willing to use such virtual consultation systems in spite of all the above theoretical conveniences. Based on uncertainty reduction theory, this paper investigates the strategies to reduce patients’ uncertainties about the diagnosis quality. The research question is how to reveal doctors’ consultation information to reduce patients’ uncertainty on diagnosis quality in the context of virtual consultation. A review of existing 12 famous virtual consultation systems will be conducted. A following survey and content analysis of patients’ reviews on these systems will also be conducted regarding doctors’ diagnosis quality. We propose that demonstration of consultation process, review availability and communication naturalness can reduce patients’ uncertainty level of diagnosis quality in the context of virtual consultation. This paper explores how to design virtual consultation systems to enhance patients’ trust and certainty on diagnosis quality before actual consultation, which shed a light on future research of online consultation quality. The results can practically facilitate healthcare providers to understand patients’ concerns on diagnosis quality of virtual consultation. They can also guide the design of virtual consultation systems industrially to reduce patients’ uncertainties on online consultation, and consequently to attract more people using these systems.