A 35-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Dermatology Patient Behavior across Economic & Cultural Manifestations in Tunisia, and the Impact of Digital Tools

TL;DR

This study provides a 35-year longitudinal analysis of dermatology patient behavior in Tunisia, examining how digital tools like Google, social media, and AI have influenced behaviors across economic and cultural dimensions in clinical care.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of behavioral changes over 35 years and explores the impact of digital tools on dermatology patients in Tunisia, highlighting future opportunities.

Findings

Digital tools significantly changed patient behavior patterns.

Behavioral shifts are linked to economic and cultural factors.

Future digital tools can address identified issues.

Abstract

The evolution of behavior of dermatology patients has seen significantly accelerated change over the past decade, driven by surging availability and adoption of digital tools and platforms. Through our longitudinal analysis of this behavior within Tunisia over a 35-year time frame, we identify behavioral patterns across economic and cultural dimensions and how digital tools have impacted those patterns in preceding years. Throughout this work, we highlight the witnessed effects of available digital tools as experienced by patients, and conclude by presenting a vision for how future tools can help address the issues identified across economic and cultural manifestations. Our analysis is further framed around three types of digital tools: "Dr. Google", social media, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and across three stages of clinical care: pre-visit, in-visit, and post-visit.