Patient Experience and Virtualized Healthcare: Thematic analyses of news, scientific literature, and user experience discourses

This dissertation uses mixed methods to examine three discourses of patient experience of virtualized healthcare. The three discourses examined are: (1) a news discourse, (2) a scientific literature discourse, and (3) a user experience discourse. Virtualized healthcare is defined by this dissertation as healthcare activities specifically conducted via mediated communication. Uptake in virtualized healthcare has accelerated as many Ontario practitioners have recently offered this form of care due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ministry of Health creating temporary “COVID-19 pandemic allowance” for all physicians to bill for virtual care. As a period of initial unregulated use of virtual care by Ontarians ends, there is now an opportunity to take a closer look at the patient experiences of these healthcare services.

By analysing the three distinct discourses (each of which is a form of health communication), this dissertation maps central themes that are consistently brought up in discussions of virtualized healthcare and patient experience. Comparing the themes that come up in the discourse genres of scientific literature and news articles provides an understanding of how patients may come to understand the phenomenon of virtualized healthcare. Adding an analysis of user experience discourse to this understanding provides findings of what themes overlap in both public discourses and accounts of personal experiences of virtualized healthcare.

The themes found across the three discourses are ultimately developed into three recommendations the implementation or practicing of virtualized healthcare, which are to be tested and evaluated in future research programs. The three recommendations (engaging patients in healthcare innovation, viewing healthcare as a hybrid patient-centric network, and understanding that virtualization requirements of healthcare interactions vary) are ways of thinking about how healthcare can become virtualized, and what affects the potential virtualization of healthcare. These recommendations are evidenced based, proven to not only be observed in user experience discourse, but also in how researchers and the public discuss issues and concepts of virtualized healthcare. Different and overlapping elements of each recommendation are highlighted by each discourse. Each of the recommendations is discussed in terms of its theoretical and practical implications.