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From Waiting to Awareness: Enriching Patients' Waiting Time in Healthcare Settings – A Letter to the Editor
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Amin Ansarinia1    , Fatemeh Zarei Mahmoud abadi2 |
1- . Orthodontics Department, Dental Material Research Center, Dental Research Institute, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
2- Pharmacy Student, School of Pharmacy, Yazd University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran , ftm.zarei09@gmail.com |
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Abstract: (179 Views) |
| Health literacy in Iran remains below optimal levels, highlighting the need for greater emphasis on patient education. Patients' waiting time in clinical settings is a largely underutilized resource that often passes without purposeful use, despite its potential to enhance health awareness and strengthen the physician–patient relationship. This letter proposes practical, low-cost strategies to transform waiting time into a productive educational opportunity, including short educational videos, QR codes linking to reliable health content, small physical libraries of brochures and booklets, digital kiosks or tablets with restricted access to health-related content, smart waiting rooms utilizing virtual reality and artificial intelligence, gamification techniques, health-oriented mobile applications, and simple interactive activities such as quizzes and suggestion boxes. While these interventions offer clear benefits, their implementation may be limited by financial and infrastructural constraints, variations in patients' health literacy and digital literacy, information overload, and privacy concerns. Therefore, such strategies should be designed with attention to the demographic and sociocultural characteristics of the target population. Overall, purposeful use of waiting time may improve patients' health knowledge, reduce anxiety, and enhance the quality of clinical care. |
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| Keywords: Health literacy, Health-seeker information provision, Information/method dissemination, Waiting rooms |
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Full-Text [PDF 679 kb]
(74 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Letter to the Editor |
Subject:
General
Received: 2025/12/27 | Accepted: 2026/08/17 | Published: 2026/09/26
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