Written Reflections Indicative of Trust: Implications for Telemedicine and Relational Trust

Abstract

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic moved primary care to the virtual environment essentially overnight, allowing transactional aspects of healthcare to continue, but likely diluting the formation of patientclinician trust. The healthcare system runs on trust. As Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow notes, virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust, but the role of trust in health care is especially crucial, because illness is an "assault on personal integrity." Greater vulnerability calls for higher trust. Relational trust a healthcare interaction is grounded in the clinician/patient relationship, but embedded in connections to care teams, organizational administrative and support services, and broader societal systems.