Simulation-Based Training of Communication and Emotional Competence for the Improvement of Physician-Patient Relationship

Abstract

Recent research has determined that the training of health-care professionals in communication and emotional skills management is related to patients' satisfaction and compliance towards medical treatments. Moreover, good communicative and emotional competence enhances the physician's sensitivity to the psychosocial aspects conveyed by patients, and it may also help the physician to cope with his/her own emotions, thus reducing burnout. Training in such capacities has traditionally been conducted via didactic learning. However, recent work in computer-based simulation offers a viable and promising alternative. The present work, as part of the EU-funded project "MySelf: Multimodal e-learning System based on Simulations, Role-Playing, Automatic Coaching and Voice Recognition interaction for Affective Profiling" (www.myself-proj.it), aims to describe the potential of computer-based interactive simulations for enhancing communication and emotional competence training in the physician-patient relationship. In particular, this work is focused on the translation of typical interactive medical situations into 3D simulations with animated characters; this offers the possibility for physicians to train their communicative and emotional skills (e.g. empathy, emotional coping, non-verbal communication, etc.) in critical settings through interactive scenarios that improve the user's identification and experience in a virtual context.