Browsing by Subject "doctor–patient communication"

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    Creepy, but Persuasive: In a Virtual Consultation, Physician Bedside Manner, Rather than the Uncanny Valley, Predicts Adherence
    (Frontiers, 2021) Dai, Zhengyan; MacDorman, Karl F.; Human-Centered Computing, School of Informatics and Computing
    Care for chronic disease requires patient adherence to treatment advice. Nonadherence worsens health outcomes and increases healthcare costs. When healthcare professionals are in short supply, a virtual physician could serve as a persuasive technology to promote adherence. However, acceptance of advice may be hampered by the uncanny valley effect—a feeling of eeriness elicited by human simulations. In a hypothetical virtual doctor consultation, 441 participants assumed the patient’s role. Variables from the stereotype content model and the heuristic–systematic model were used to predict adherence intention and behavior change. This 2 × 5 between-groups experiment manipulated the doctor’s bedside manner—either good or poor—and virtual depiction at five levels of realism. These independent variables were designed to manipulate the doctor’s level of warmth and eeriness. In hypothesis testing, depiction had a nonsignificant effect on adherence intention and diet and exercise change, even though the 3-D computer-animated versions of the doctor (i.e., animation, swapped, and bigeye) were perceived as eerier than the others (i.e., real and cartoon). The low-warmth, high-eeriness doctor prompted heuristic processing of information, while the high-warmth doctor prompted systematic processing. This pattern contradicts evidence reported in the persuasion literature. For the stereotype content model, a path analysis found that good bedside manner increased the doctor’s perceived warmth significantly, which indirectly increased physical activity. For the heuristic–systematic model, the doctor’s eeriness, measured in a pretest, had no significant effect on adherence intention and physical activity, while good bedside manner increased both significantly. Surprisingly, cognitive perspective-taking was a stronger predictor of change in physical activity than adherence intention. Although virtual characters can elicit the uncanny valley effect, their effect on adherence intention and physical activity was comparable to a video of a real person. This finding supports the development of virtual consultations.
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    Gynecological cancers: an alternative approach to healing
    (Future Science, 2017-07-12) Saso, Srdjan; Jones, Benjamin P; Bracewell-Milnes, Timothy; Huseyin, Gulsen; Boyle, Deborah C; Del Priore, Giuseppe; Smith, James Richard; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
    Grief and hope are two conflicting emotions that a patient recently diagnosed with cancer has to master. The real challenge for gynecologic oncologists is how to reach out. Conventional wisdom states that offering patients focus and belief when combating cancer in their lives allows them to embrace hope with greater confidence, which minimizes their grief. Three pictorial models are presented: ‘4-cusp approach’ model used at the initial consultation; ‘tapestry of bereavement or landscape of grief’ model at the postsurgery consultation; and ‘Venn-diagram’ model at any time during patient management. We have applied these models in our practice and believe that they can act as a fulcrum for the patient, the family and healthcare team around which therapy should be centered., Grief and hope are two emotions that a patient faces if diagnosed with cancer. The real challenge for the doctor is how to reach out and help the patient through this process. A doctor's role may be to offer focus and belief to the patient which may allow her to embrace hope with greater confidence. This will hopefully lessen the grief. We present three models which we believe can play a crucial part: ‘4-cusp approach’ used at the initial consultation; ‘tapestry of bereavement or landscape of grief model’ at the postsurgery consultation; and ‘Venn-diagram model’ at any time during care.