Interactional finesses of medical video consultations

E-health is increasing and could provide solutions for accessible and sustainable healthcare in the future. However, little is still known about the characteristics of digital communication between healthcare professionals and patients. In this project, we investigate online medical video consultations between doctors and patients using conversation analytical- and corpus-analytical methods. We re-use data of video and face-to-face consultations acquired in 2018/2019 and will extend our data set with new video consultations because experience with videoconferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected video communication practices. We are interested in turn-taking and feedback practices, such as the length of pauses between turns, overlapping speech, the use of visual (e.g., nods) and verbal (e.g., hmhm) continuers, and how many questions patients ask. We also examine ow specific interactional activities such as openings, closings, and physical assessment, as well as the participation of companions. With the insights of this project, we additionally hope to contribute to guidelines and education for healthcare professionals on what (not) to do in online video consultations.