Digital Technologies to Transform Waiting Times in Hospital Settings - A Systematic Literature Review

Neuroscientific research highlights that waiting is an active and potentially stressful mental process rather than a passive state. In clinical settings, prolonged waiting times are directly associated with lower patient satisfaction, reduced treatment adherence, and a negative perception of care quality. Subjective time perception is fundamentally dependent on how attention is distributed; therefore, by reallocating cognitive resources toward stimulating and interactive environments, patients process fewer temporal cues, causing the perceived wait to diminish. The primary aim of this study is to comprehensively analyze how digital technologies can be deployed to improve waiting experiences within healthcare settings