‘When the visible body is no longer the seer’: The phenomenology of perception and the clinical gaze in video consultations

Abstract

Video technology enabled professionals and patients to conduct consultations during the COVID‐19 pandemic when in‐person health care was minimised to reduce the spread of the virus. We present findings of a study of video‐consulting through in‐depth qualitative remote interviews with 40 health professionals, managers, support staff and 10 patients in health‐care services across the UK from 2020 to 2021. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of the clinical gaze, Merleau‐Ponty’s work on the phenomenology of perception and Ihde’s postphenomenology we interpreted the ways in which remote consultations shaped patient–professional interactions, mediating and framing what was seen, revealed and known. We found that participating in video consultations not only involved creative adaption and adjustment to a virtual clinic but also changed how professionals and patients saw and were seen. We argue that this mode of consulting can transform boundaries and perceptions, alter aspects of clinical presence, knowledge and embodiment and thus both change and incorporate the clinical gaze.