At the health care professional level, electronic symptom reporting might support the diagnostic process, and thus also make better use of the health professional’s time. Determining the patient’s main problem or concern is often demanding for the physician [4]. The way in which patients present their problems, and the sequence, importance, and severity of symptoms influence the physician’s interpretation. Likewise, studies of interview styles show that physicians elicit only about 50% of the medical information considered important in a consultation [5]. Health care professionals may also be challenged by patients’ difficulties in correctly remembering symptom levels beyond the past several days [6] and older patients’ omission of many symptoms [7] during a consultation. On the other hand, we know that people in general report a higher number of and more serious symptoms when using computer-mediated communication than in face-to-face encounters or phone conversations [8](p. 28-29).
At the health care system level, time and money might be saved [9]. Trials of electronic symptom reporting suggest that it may be possible to substitute about one-third or more of face-to-face consultations in primary care settings [10, 11]. It is probably also possible to reduce the number of consultations in specialist care. …show more content…
Many of the studies focused on technologies rather than health effects, and most of them seem to have been underpowered to document clinical effects or specific benefits for health care professionals, health care systems, or patients [1]. No systematic review has yet addressed this topic, to the best of our knowledge, which makes it difficult for innovators and researchers to assess which of these choices are most promising and have the strongest potential for development on a larger
At the health care system level, time and money might be saved [9]. Trials of electronic symptom reporting suggest that it may be possible to substitute about one-third or more of face-to-face consultations in primary care settings [10, 11]. It is probably also possible to reduce the number of consultations in specialist care. …show more content…
Many of the studies focused on technologies rather than health effects, and most of them seem to have been underpowered to document clinical effects or specific benefits for health care professionals, health care systems, or patients [1]. No systematic review has yet addressed this topic, to the best of our knowledge, which makes it difficult for innovators and researchers to assess which of these choices are most promising and have the strongest potential for development on a larger