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Portrait of Christina Keller. Photo.

Christina Keller

Professor, Director of third cycle studies, Department of Informatics

Portrait of Christina Keller. Photo.

Doctor at your fingertips : An exploration of digital visits from stakeholders’ perspectives

Author

  • Selina Demi
  • Samir Hilmy
  • Christina Keller

Summary, in English

Technological advances and the evolution of mobile technologies enable patients to meet their doctors through their smartphones. While offering the opportunity of digital visits to patients, there are also challenges for this development. The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of digital visits, as perceived by experts working in telemedicine companies. To serve this purpose, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with managers and employees in eight telemedicine companies. The analysis of the empirical data confirmed the importance of digital visits and their efficiency. The potential of digital visits is expected to increase significantly, should they make use of remote devices to transfer real-time data from patients to physicians. In such a case, digital visits are expected to cover approximately 70–75% of medical cases. However, the use of remote devices must be taken with caution and specific conditions need to be taken into account. We encourage researchers to perform research on promising technologies such as artificial intelligence and remote diagnostic devices, which could make more diagnoses and conditions possible to be treated by digital visits. This is even more important in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Department/s

  • Department of Informatics

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Publication/Series

Life

Volume

11

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Information Systems
  • Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Keywords

  • Digital visits
  • Remote real-time devices
  • Remote visits
  • Telemedicine
  • Telemedicine applications

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0024-3019