Hi everyone! My name is Woosuk Seo
And, I'm a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan
Today, I'm going to present our study about designing technology
to support effective child patient-provider communication,
based on healthcare providers communication strategies
In the pediatric care context,
having effective communication with child patients is challenging for healthcare providers
Existing communication guidelines and training for providers
often focus on general communication skills for interacting with child patients
and have less concentration on providers unique challenges
to have effective communication with child patients who have
different personalities, preferences, and needs
Also, poor communication hinders providers from accurately assessing child patients' symptoms
As a result, healthcare providers have to frequently develop
their own communication skills to interact with children effectively
Acknowledging these challenges,
we conducted a qualitative study that focused on the following research questions
First, what are the key elements of effective communication that providers value
when they interact with child patients?
Second, how do providers strategically interact with
child patients to accomplish effective communication during clinic visits?
Third, how can technology support healthcare providers' communication strategy development?
To answer these questions, we conducted 12 field observation sessions
and 10 semi-structured interviews with healthcare providers at an urban children's hospital
Based on the collected data, we found four communication strategies
The first strategy is building rapport with children
For instance, providers in our study explained what
they would do to the children before their actions
such as having physical exams or giving injections.
In this way, children know what to expect for the medical procedures
and consider providers as someone trustful and build rapport with them
The second strategy is developing children's familiarity with care settings
and routinizing clinical procedures
Children would meet the same care team members, have the same order of treatment procedures,
and communicate in the same method as their last visit
This structured hospital care process would allow
children to be more familiar with care settings and clinical procedures
The third strategy is respecting and adopting children's communication preferences
For instance, a provider in our study met a child who refused to talk to the care team
So, the provider asked questions to the stuffed dog that the child brought,
then the child began to answer for the dog, reflecting his own preference and needs
The last strategy is delegating small decisions and inviting children to conversations
Providers directly ask children about which arm they prefer to have injections
or where they want to sit during consultations
Such small decisions are not essential to the treatment decisions
but relevant enough to allow the children to feel a sense of control during the clinic visits
Based on these four strategies, we found three elements of effective communication
that providers value in the pediatric care context
Transparency, Respect–Acceptance, and Empowerment.
Transparency refers to providing transparent information about clinicians and their actions,
rather than simply providing access to the detailed medical information
Respect and Acceptance indicates adopting each child's specific language and communication styles
Empowerment means helping children to control over their care at their perceptual level
To promote providers' strategies for accomplishing these three elements,
we present the following design considerations for technology
Among these three, I would like to introduce the first consideration:
facilitating patients' familiarity with the providers and the care setting
An example of this consideration is a mobile application that collects patients information
such as their favorite character, foods, activity and personal interests
Then, it shares the information with the providers after having patients consent
For the patient, the app can provide brief heads-up
about the care team members and treatment procedures before talking to the provider
So, the app promotes rapport-building by providing transparent information to the child patients
And, I would like to thank my wonderful co-authors listed here
And, thank you, everyone, for watching