A Shared Interface to Improve Oncologist-Patient Communication

Abstract

Patients recently diagnosed with cancer require information from their oncologist to further educate themselves about their disease, their course of action, side effects, and possible treatment plans and options. However, disagreements on the information discussed in these meetings indicate that patients and physicians leave with different ideas of the content of their discussions, leading to confusion on the part of the patient, and potentially leading to future problems in the course of treatment. With the increasing use of pervasive technologies in the medical environment, there is great potential to augment communication strategies in facilitating better care. In this paper, we propose a solution utilizing a shared mobile device to supplement patientphysician communication during cancer discussions. In particular, we present an application that personalizes the content presented on the device to the patient's diagnosis in a easy-tounderstand language, rather than hard-to-understand medical terminology, and encourages patient-physician interaction on the main topical areas of a patient's diagnosis.

Designing Patient-facing Health Information Technologies for the Outpatient Settings: A Literature Review

“…One paper was mainly a design description. 43 It described a design concept of patient-facing HIT to enhance the doctor–patient communication. 43 The four papers were mainly design evaluations.…”

“…43 It described a design concept of patient-facing HIT to enhance the doctor–patient communication. 43 The four papers were mainly design evaluations. 44 – 47 They presented the results of usability evaluations of the low-fidelity prototypes of patient-facing HITs.…”

Innovative Technologies for Medical Education

“…Gonzales and Riek [24] presented an application that personalized the content presented on a device of the patient's diagnosis in an easy-to-understand language, rather than hard to understand medical terminology. It also encourages doctor-patient interaction on the main relevant areas of the patient's diagnosis.…”

Simulated Clinical Encounters Using Patient-Operated mHealth: Experimental Study to Investigate Patient-Provider Communication

“…Primary users, on the other hand, are the dominant operators that control the system and the dissemination of its information and are patients in this context [ 1 ]. Some researchers believe that the secondary user experience (UX) has the potential to improve collaboration and satisfaction in a variety of settings and, as such, advocate for its inclusion in interactive systems design [ 4 - 6 ]. However, little is known about the experience of the secondary user, especially in the context of health care provider encounters.…”