Paper Title
Selection of Doctors by Patients Using Telemedicine as an Opponent of Communication in Conducting Online Health Consultations
Abstract
Telemedicine has become an important alternative for health consultations in the current digital era, especially
during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the popular telemedicine applications in Indonesia is Halodoc. Research analyzes
how Halodoc application users choose doctors as communication partners in online health consultations. This research
approach is qualitative with a phenomenological method. Data was collected through interviews with four active users of the
Halodoc application who had used consultation services with doctors. Apart from that, researchers also conducted participant
observations in the process of selecting doctors and consultations. This research links the choice of doctors to the Uses and
Gratifications theory, which emphasizes that media users are active individuals who choose media based on their needs and
goals. Additionally, communication privacy management theory is used to understand how individuals manage their personal
information in communications with physicians via telemedicine. The results of this research show that Halodoc application
users choose this telemedicine service because it is practical, easy to access, and affordable. The selection of physicians as their
communication partners is based on a variety of factors, including the physician's gender, educational background, practice
setting, physician experience, and ratings from previous users. In addition, users base their decisions on the information the
Halodoc application provides about the doctor.
Keywords - Communications, Telemedicine, Doctors, Patients, Media