Background Design in Telehealth: Shaping Patient Perceptions of the Service

Telehealth holds the potential to reduce rising healthcare costs and improve access to healthcare. However, telehealth services’ uptake is contingent on the successful design of the service. While previous research mainly focuses on the technical design of telehealth services, we investigate the effects of service providers’ digital environment during a video consultation by analyzing how the level of professionalism of the physician’s video background affects patient outcomes and whether customization of the video background moderates this relationship. Building on fluency theory and experimental data (n = 270), we reveal that the less professional the background is, the more negative the impact on patients’ service evaluation through perceived physician competence and trust towards the physician: However, we do not find a moderating effect of video background customization on the relation between level of professionalism and perceived physician competence. Our results suggest important theoretical and managerial implications and ideas for future research.