Helping patients reduce anxiety and choose new physicians through improved provider biographies

Abstract

Objective: Not being able to effectively communicate with a new physician because of high anxiety associated with the interaction could lead to issues not being addressed, or even inaccurate diagnoses. Using uncertainty reduction and media richness theories as guidance, this study sought to find ways health educators within healthcare organisations could help prospective patients reduce their communication apprehension (CA) prior to a consultation. Methods: A total of 90 participants with high Communication Apprehension (CA) with respect to physicians were randomly exposed to two biographies of two different physicians in counterbalanced order that varied in the kind of information provided about the physician (primarily professional or personal), and the media through which the information was presented (text or video). Setting: An online experiment surrounding primary care provider selection. Results: Repeated measures analyses revealed that CA was reduced the greatest when participants viewed video biographies and biographies containing personal information about the physicians. Participants indicated they would want to visit the physician with whom they had the lowest level of CA. Conclusion: This research highlights improvements health educators or service provider managers could make to their physicians’ online biographies to help high-CA patients reduce their apprehension, and make the choice of the next physician much easier. Notably, including personal information about providers, and providing video introductions, reduces CA most significantly.