How satisfactory are empathetic care and robotic assistance in telemedicine services?

ABSTRACT

Telemedicine healthcare and assistive robotic technologies are gaining popularity as support systems for traditional healthcare practices. However, there are concerns regarding the use of these digital services due to their lack of empathy and intimacy. This paper investigates the impact of physicians’ empathetic care and telepresence robot assistance on patients’ intimate experience and satisfaction. We employ a multi-method design to achieve our research objective. The first study utilizes a 2 (digital empathetic care: high vs. low) × 2 (telepresence robot assistance: present vs. absent) × 2 (severity of illness: high vs. low) between-subject experimental design involving 287 participants who have used robotic assistance and telemedicine services. The findings from this study confirm that the telepresence robotic assistance and empathetic care by physicians positively impact intimate experience and patient satisfaction significantly more for patients with low severity of illness, thus confirming the significant moderated-moderated mediation effect. The second study employs field data (n = 4629 reviews) to further validate the telepresence robots’ usability in establishing intimate patient experiences in digital settings. The study recommends to healthcare practitioners that empathetic care and robotic assistance are essential factors for building intimate experience and patient satisfaction in telehealthcare services.

抽象的

远程医疗保健和辅助机器人技术作为传统医疗保健实践的支持系统越来越受欢迎。然而，由于缺乏同理心和亲密感，人们对使用这些数字服务感到担忧。本文研究了医生的同理心护理和远程呈现机器人辅助对患者亲密体验和满意度的影响。我们采用多方法设计来实现我们的研究目标。第一项研究采用 2（数字同理心护理：高与低）X 2（远程呈现机器人辅助：存在与不存在）X 2（疾病严重程度：高与低）受试者间实验设计，涉及 287 名有经验的参与者 使用机器人协助和远程医疗服务。这项研究的结果证实，远程呈现机器人协助和医生的同理心护理对疾病严重程度较低的患者的亲密体验和患者满意度产生了积极影响，从而证实了显着的调节-调节中介效应。第二项研究使用现场数据（n = 4629 条评论）进一步验证远程呈现机器人在数字环境中建立亲密患者体验的可用性。该研究向医疗从业者建议，同理心护理和机器人协助是在远程医疗服务中建立亲密体验和患者满意度的重要因素。

KEYWORDS:

• Telemedicine service
• healthcare management
• telepresence robots
• empathy
• intimacy
• patient satisfaction
• experience

关键词:

• 远程医疗服务
• 健康管理
• 远程呈现机器人
• 共情
• 亲密
• 患者满意度
• 经验

Acknowledgement

Prof. Jay Kandampully, Professor of Service Management, The Ohio State University, USA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).