Video-mediated Consultation clinical trials

Is the Medium the Message?

Digital communication media like video‐interaction (cf. Skype) are increasingly being adopted in institutional environments like hospitals for physician‐patient interactions. We may expect that the use of a digital medium affects these interactions in various ways and on various levels. In video‐interaction, eye contact for example is impossible due to the position of the camera, which implies interactional behavior through gaze is impaired. This may influence who speaks when, if and how the participants avoid/ solve misunderstandings, etcetera. This project makes headway in our understanding of the impact of new communication media on the role of language‐in‐use as a rich semiotic system, specifically in institutional interaction. This type of contextualized research reveals which communicative aspects users consider important, how they manage their institutional relationship through them and how they go about solving communication problems. The project compares the interaction of physicians and patients in video‐mediated consultations to their traditional, face‐to‐face counterparts on both the verbal and the nonverbal (gaze) level. The affordances of video‐consultations with relevance to institutional goals and identities are analyzed through a comparison with the interaction in face‐to‐face consultations. The approach used is Conversation Analysis, which involves finding patterns on both the verbal and non‐verbal level (in sequences, turn design, preference, etc.) in order to answer the question what goals and tasks the participants achieve and what dilemma's or problems they aim to solve in their talk. This study will provide insights in the limitations and advantages of both channels of communication. Best practices will be generated and outcomes of the analyses will be used to develop reco