Will the therapeutic encounter be digital-only post-pandemic?

By Rob Verkerk PhD, founder, executive & scientific director, ANH-Intl

Digital health and artificial intelligence

Management consultancy giants like McKinsey and KPMG have been offering their views on how health systems have changed during the pandemic. They also suggest which changes are likely to remain post-pandemic. Both highlight the big trend towards digitisation and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. McKinsey says telehealth – or virtual-enabled care – has stabilised after a huge peak during the first wave in early 2020 to 38 times its pre-pandemic base. KPMG, similarly, talk about the new digital front door to the doctor’s office.

This digital front door of primary care has been viewed as a necessity as patients have been dissuaded or blocked from visiting their family doctor. McKinsey and KPMG tell us this is something we should get used to as it’s a trend that’s set to stay.

Removing human-to-human contact at the interface of primary care is something we believe we shouldn’t abandon just because technologically-enabled healthcare has got products on offer that replace humans. It causes a dissociation that means the relationship – one we’ve come to refer to as the therapeutic relationship – between doctor and patient cannot function properly. This relationship has been studied and valued for well over two millennia since the time of Hippocrates and Aristotle at least. And now we’re at risk of throwing it to the wind.