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Physicians’ interaction with the EHR during outpatient check-up consultations and its association with physician-patient communication

Steneker, Vanity (2023) Physicians’ interaction with the EHR during outpatient check-up consultations and its association with physician-patient communication.

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Embargo date:4 August 2028
Abstract:Objectives: The primary goal of this study was to investigate whether it is possible to quantify the physician's focus of attention during an outpatient check-up consultation using an eye tracker. The secondary goal was to determine whether there was a significant relationship between the physician's viewing behavior and communication skills as perceived by patients during the outpatient check-up consultation. Therefore, the hypotheses “It is possible to quantify the physicians focus of attention during an outpatient check-up consultation using an eye tracker” and “More visual attention from the physician to the patient associates with a more satisfied patient concerning the physician-patient communication” were tested. The further goal of this study was to investigate whether it was feasible to broaden the study, perhaps including other hospital departments. Methods: Nine outpatient check-up consultations were eye-tracked, with the Tobii Pro Glasses 3, after which patients filled out the Communication Assessment Tool questionnaire to assess the patients’ perceived physician-patient interaction. Results: After solving multiple difficulties, it was possible to determine where the physician was gazing during the outpatient consultation with a mobile eye-tracker. The consultations that were eye-tracked successfully (N=6) gave the following parameter estimations using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) method: the intercept was 1.35 and the face/computer ratio was –0.57, both with a p < .001. This means that the log-odds of the top box score decreased by 0.57 for every one-unit increase of the face/computer ratio. In other words, patients do not seem to be less satisfied with the communication during their outpatient check-up consultation when the physician spends more time looking at their computer than at the patient's face. Conclusions: Despite several technical and software issues that had to be resolved, quantifying the physician's focus of attention during a consultation using an eye tracker was feasible. Patients seem to be more satisfied with the consultation in which their physician gazed more at the computer than at their face. These findings need to be interpreted with caution since the sample size was too small to draw hard conclusions out of the results. Practice implications The eye-tracker did not measure all consultations as well as intended. In addition, physicians and patients were aware of their consultation being watched. It is possible they did and perceived things differently as a result. Also, the analysis of the eye-tracking data is time consuming, which makes it harder, but not impossible, to perform this study on a large scale.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Faculty:TNW: Science and Technology
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Health Sciences MSc (66851)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/96607
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