Advancing Digital-Physical Relational Primary Healthcare: Four Triadic Perspectives

Other conference contribution, 2022

One significant development in healthcare operations and delivery is patient centricity and focus on the digital and face-to-face service encounter between the patient (end-user) and the physician (professional provider). Digitalization offers great potential in this transition, and is often seen as viable for discrete, transactional services, however, relational values such as equality and continuity in primary healthcare call for a better understanding of this for patients with chronical, long-term needs. To this end, this paper presents a relational approach to digitalization of professional services in primary healthcare. A multi-actor approach, conceptually and empirically informed concept mapping of patients, physicians,and line managers, resulting in seven clusters outlining what a developed contact between patients and physicians means. Derived from this are four triadic perspectives that outline how relational primary healthcare can be advanced:“continuity”, “person-centred”, “interaction quality” and “developability”