Improving the digital delivery of primary health care post COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the rapid introduction of remote consultations in primary care, with many practices becoming remote by default. This change to service delivery allows care provision to continue, whilst limiting the risk of COVID transmission. While 'remote' in the current context has sometimes referred to services delivered by telephone, use of video-over-the-internet platforms has increased significantly and these are here to stay. This research is a unique opportunity to identify the specific communicative challenges posed by the use of video consultations in primary care and identify ways to minimise them.

The project will focus on the following questions:
1) What are the key communicative challenges arising for GPs and patients during video consultations?
2) Are there particular contexts in which these challenges recur (e.g. patient group, or activity type within consultation)?
3) How can these challenges be negotiated and minimised in order to optimise remote care delivery?

The project consists of a conversation analytic (CA) study. This inductive qualitative approach analyses social interaction, focusing on verbal and bodily conduct and its social consequences. Intensive comparative analysis of multiple episodes allows identification and explication of recurrent patterns and their consequences, thereby moving the analysis beyond individual psychological dispositions. Through this research the findings will highlight areas GPs and patients currently find challenging, and whether there are recurring contexts for these challenges, as well as successful strategies developed by participants to negotiate and overcome them. Findings will be disseminated to clinicians with the assistance of the supervisory team. This project also has potential to inform wider sociological debate on the impact that greater reliance on digital technology has on social interaction.