EHR Etiquette and the Importance of Eye Contact in Clinician-Patient Communication

March 18, 2010 · Filed Under general · 15 Comments

Another guest post from Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM, following her much-commented earlier post.

Lisa is Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Health Communication Program at Tufts University School of Medicine. Lisa teaches Online Consumer Health and Web Strategies for Health Communication. A social media user herself, Lisa (Twitter, LinkedIn) blogs on health and is Editor-in-Chief of eLearn Magazine, where she blogs on education.

I had an interesting juxtaposition of events. While waiting in Peets, a coffee shop in Lexington Center, I watched the friendly discussions between the baristas and customers. I then went to a doctor’s appointment, where a nurse stood typing at a laptop asking me a series of questions, including “Are you in pain?” and “Do you feel safe at home?” She didn’t look at me once as she read and typed.
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Social Healthcare: “Medicine in the Age of Twitter”

June 14, 2009 · Filed Under general · 6 Comments

Physician Pauline Chen writes about “Medicine in the Age of Twitter” for the New York Times. The article suggests the need for our upcoming peer-reviewed Journal of Participatory Medicine:

…a quick scan through peer-reviewed journals reveals only a handful of articles, and no evidence-based guidelines, to guide doctors on the use of social media. It is unclear whether such engagement adds to or detracts from a therapeutic patient-doctor relationship, and clinicians are unsure about what constitutes good standards of care and professional responsibility on these platforms.

More physicians and hospital are using, or thinking about using, social media, such as Dr. Sean Khozin of Hello Health, a system that mixes office and online visits. He’s quoted in the Times article as saying “there are so many layers of bureaucracy between health care providers and patients.”

We can use social media to coordinate care with patients and with different specialists, all using the same platform. I can monitor my patients, and they can also use these tools to become empowered through a better understanding of their own disease state and active engagement.

Our own Danny Sands is quoted on the down side of social media for patient communication. “Maybe letting your patient get too close isn’t always good for the therapeutic relationship,” he says, and he goes on to note that busy physicians are not eager to add the new time commitments social media would entail without a clearer idea of the value. The highest-value healthcare application of social media may be in supporting patient communities, where, Sands says, “we can aggregate across space and across the world and create a safe environment for support.” He calls referral to a patient community like the Association of Cancer Online Resources an “information prescription.”

Tags: Cancer Online Resources, Clinicians, Health Care Providers, Healthcare Application, Information Prescription, New Time, New York Times, Patient Communication, Patient Communities, Patient Community, Patient Doctor, Pauline Chen, Peer Reviewed Journal, Peer Reviewed Journals, Professional Responsibility, Quick Scan, Therapeutic Relationship, Time Commitments, Times Article, Twitter