Improving Medical Communication: A Multidisciplinary Study to Develop a Digital Inquiries Application for Patients

Communication between family physicians (FPs) and patients via digital inquiries systems has become a widespread practice, often replacing physical meetings and phone calls. Studies around the world have shown the importance of digital communication alongside FP frustration and burnout as well as patient dissatisfaction. This study aims to examine and map existing types of inquiries and typical replies to such. In addition, we study FPs' perceptions and barriers regarding digital communication via current inquiry systems, and how such communication can be improved. This is a preliminary study in preparation for a follow-up study that will deepen the analysis towards the design of a technological solution aimed at streamlining the inquiry process of communication for both physicians and patients. We aim to automate replies to inquiries as much as possible, while identifying urgent inquiries and advancing them in the queue. We report on the first two stages in our study: a questionnaire that was distributed to FPs and a design thinking workshop for FPs. These two stages enabled us to understand the FPs' perceptions and define requirements for enhancing the existing inquiry system.