On-screen medicine. How patients present themselves to medical specialists in video consultations

Abstract

This study explores patient interactions with medical specialists via video consultations, focusing on their diverse perspectives and performative behaviors. Based on ten days of ethnographic observations and 15 in-depth interviews across Danish neurology, psychiatry, gynecology-obstetrics, and dermatology practices, we draw on Goffman's work on self-presentation to demonstrate how patients present themselves in video consultations to better convey their needs and health status. Our findings reveal a spectrum of patient perceptions and performances related to their disease, doctor-patient relationship, treatment needs, and home setting. The study underscores patients' varying performative agency in digital healthcare, emphasizing their more or less strategic navigation and presentation during video consultations, termed ‘on-screen medicine’.