Patient Preference for Telehealth Background Shapes Impressions of Physicians and Information Recall: A Randomized Experiment.

Telehealth is increasing rapidly as a health care delivery platform, but we lack empirical evidence regarding how telehealth environments can affect patient experiences. The present research determined how physician's telehealth backgrounds affect various patient outcomes. Participants viewed a 30-s video of a physician with one of six different virtual backgrounds and reported various socioemotional and cognitive responses to the mock telehealth experience.

Environmental Considerations for Effective Telehealth Encounters: A Narrative Review and Implications for Best Practice.

Due to the reduction in-person visits, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to expansions in the use of telehealth technology to provide patient care, yet clinicians lack evidence-based guidance on how to most effectively use video communication to enhance patient experience and outcomes. A narrative review was conducted to describe environmental factors derived from research in social psychology and human-computer interaction (HCI) that may guide effective video-based clinician-patient telehealth communication. Factors such as nonverbal cues, spatial proximity, professionalism cues, and ambient features play an important role in patient experience.