10 Minutes of Empathy: Exploring Ways to Create a Better Doctor-Patient Relationship

This thesis is an exploration into ‘getting the human element back into the doctor-patient relationship, in the technology driven future of healthcare’, within the 10 minute time frame of a walk-in clinic, using design tools strategically. ‘Care & comfort’ between the doctor and the patient has been on the fall over the last decade. Population explosion, myriad of choices, technology boom and medical discoveries have all contributed towards this changing dynamic. In today’s tightly timed clinic visits, there is a lot of repetitive questioning on the part of the patient, which leads to repetitive explanation from the doctor. The mind of the patient is often clouded with anxiety which leads to them being less receptive to the doctor’s instructions. All this, coupled with a growing push towards digitisation of healthcare, sophisticated technology will soon provide diagnosis, treatment strategy and recommendations to the doctor, minimising their role as the sole decision making person. Penetration of smart technology into the intimate, personalized doctor- patient space brings the inherent risk of dehumanizing the relationship further. Thus, in this technology driven future of healthcare, it is important that we do not lose the ‘human connection’ between the doctors and the patients. This thesis aims to examine the factors affecting the relationship, communication methods and emotions involved in the doctor-patient interaction area, using explorative and generative design methodologies. This work sits within the larger body of relational design, as the core focus is understanding people who communicate within stressful conditions. This thesis uses participatory design methods within a human centered design approach to understand the problem space. Stakeholder mapping, journey maps, evolution mapping, interviews, cultural probes and mental models are the design tools used to understand, categorise and organise the information within the research area. An approach similar to the one suggested in this thesis can be extrapolated for use in spheres beyond healthcare. The thesis offers a set of design opportunities which can be carried forward for further research. The main inference shows that decreasing patient anxiety levels and introducing better communication methods can lead to improved human connection. Therefore, it offers possible design interventions which provide alternative ways of for enhancing the quality and content of the patient’s experience and keeping it within the ‘comfort zone’ of reduced anxiety without sacrificing the benefits accruing from smart technology.