Physicians’ and Patients’ Expectations From Digital Agents for Consultations: Interview Study Among Physicians and Patients (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Physicians are overwhelmed by administrative tasks and spend too little time counseling patients, hampering health literacy, shared decision-making, and adherence to treatment. OBJECTIVE Do digital agents built on fast-evolving generative AI, such as ChatGPT, have the potential to improve healthcare counseling? We sought answers by asking patients and physicians for their opinions on the description of three digital agents, a Silent Digital Expert, a Communicative Digital Expert, and a Digital Companion. METHODS Our exploratory study conducted in-depth interviews with 25 patients and 22 physicians from a convenience sample. The patients and physicians were from a wide age range and came from different educational backgrounds or medical fields. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were deductively coded using MAXQDA and then summarized by code and interview. The resulting summaries were then clustered for interpretation. RESULTS We structured statements and quotes from patients and physicians according to three consultation phases: First: Silent and Communicative Digital Experts who support and are part of the consultation; second: Digital Experts who hand over to a Digital Companion for the time between consultations; third: Digital Companions supporting patients between consultations. Overall, patients and physicians were open to this kind of counseling support but expressed thoughtful concerns about various details across all digital agents. CONCLUSIONS Considering the results and linking them to the literature, we derived nine requirements for designing digital agents to support counseling.

Closing the Loop for Patients with Chronic Diseases - from Problems to a Solution Architecture

“…The problem identification and motivation activity is based on related work and two studies conducted by us [4,15]. Both studies are based on in-depth interviews [16].…”

“…In a prior study [4], we identified the following core concepts for a functional architecture specifying systems that integrates EMRs with mHealth applications: (1) Patientcenteredness, (2) support of physician-patient relationship and collaboration, (3) adaptive interventions, and (4) integration of mHealth apps into medical workflows and EMRs. We use these concepts to assess existing architectures [5,6].…”

“…The first was based on interviews with seven patients, eight physicians, and three other HCPs [15]. The second included interviews with 25 patients with various diseases and 22 physicians from different medical disciplines [4].…”