Record and relisten at home: the future of doctors consultations
Have you ever found yourself struggling to wrap your head around what was really discussed during your consultation at the doctors this morning? Well, you are not the only one.
Going to the doctor or medical specialist is a nerve-racking experience for a lot of people. Your head is filled with worries about your health and the possible diagnosis you might get. Although your appointment often gives you clarity about the next steps, the information you receive there might be quite overwhelming.
As it turns out, patients forget 40–80% of what is discussed during the consultation. And of the remaining information we think we remember, half is actually recalled incorrectly. So how can we take back control over our own health journey?
Secret recording
Many patients have already found their own solution to this situation. A survey by the Medical Protection Society in 2014 showed that one in five doctors have experienced patients recording their consultations.
There are multiple reasons why a patient would want to relisten to the consultation. It helps them process and retain important information, reflect on discussed treatment options and risks, and allows them to share first hand information with their children, parents and loved ones. Improved retention has also been linked to better adherence, which in turn yields better outcomes for the patient. It’s no surprise, then, that 70% of patients who record also actively make use of this recording afterwards.
The problem? A staggering 40% of patients admitted to recording in secret, without consent of the doctor. Legalities aside, this behaviour breaks trust, damaging the doctor-patient relationship and results in sensitive information of both parties stored in vulnerable environments.
Beneficial for both parties
The possibility of relistening to a conversation is not only beneficial for the patient, but it can also be beneficial to the workflow of doctors. When patients have the possibility to relisten to the previous consultation before their next appointment, the follow up appointment can be more efficient — or even eliminated entirely. Doctors do not have to answer the same questions again and they can focus more on giving the appropriate care to their patients.
Furthermore, a recorded consultation can form the basis for many additional time-saving measures and help ensure accuracy of medical records. Given the current shortage of healthcare workers in many developed and developing countries, solutions for saving time on possible redundant tasks are a valuable investment.
Professional solution
As we have shown in this article, recording doctor-patient consultations has benefits for both doctors and patients — and it’s already happening.
However, we can all agree that a secret recording on the patient’s phone under the table is not the endgame we envision. While there is a clear need for the possibility to relisten to your consultation, there are few standardised professional solutions in place. Such a solution would be able to address many shortcomings of the status quo, including quality of the audio recording, security of the process and storage of the data, as well as maintaining a good trust relationship between the patient and the doctor by asking consent from both parties.
Autoscriber™ Replay is one example of such a solution, providing a professional web application that can be used in combination with external microphones or our mobile app to record consultations that can be replayed by both patients and doctors. Because we provide a secure, ISO 27001 and GDPR compliant environment for recording and replay, patients and doctors do not have to worry about data privacy. Previous recordings can be found in one place within our EU based, user encrypted cloud - this means even cloud providers cannot decrypt the data - and when requested, they can be removed without worrying about copies that might be stored in various places.
Find more on AI and solutions directed to the healthcare industry at autoscriber.com
