Can a Relationship of Trust Be Built Between Student Doctors and Patients Through Remote Interviews During COVID-19?

Clinical clerkships could not be conducted as usual in 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a questionnaire survey of medical students and patients to determine whether remote medical interviews conducted in such a scenario could build a trusting relationship between the two.

Fifth-year students at Tokai University School of Medicine conducted tablet-based medical interviews (remote medical interviews) with patients as part of their clinical clerkship of breast endocrine surgery. Later, both the patients and students had to rate the trustworthiness of their relationship and their preference for remote/face-to-face medical interviews in a questionnaire survey. Forty-three students and 42 patients took part in the survey.

All the patients and students agreed that a trusting relationship had been established. The results showed that most of the students preferred remote medical interviews, but patients were very divided in their preferences between face-to-face and remote medical interviews. Overall, we may conclude that remote medical interviews could be a safe tool for clinical practice in the future.