Education for the Electronic Encounter: Teaching Patient-Centered Communication in Patient Portals

• In Event: 79.027 - Transitions Along the Educational Continuum

Abstract

Despite gains in clinical efficiency, emerging evidence has suggested that electronic encounters, including patient portals, may impede patient-centered care. To date, little research has explored how to teach effective patient-centered electronic communication in patient portals. Thus, we developed an interactive module to teach patient-centered electronic communication to health professional students. Analysis of patient-provider transcripts revealed that patient-centered communication practices were successfully integrated into portal messages; however, there was marked variation in participants’ content and style of responses. Participants expressed uncertainty regarding communication norms and appropriateness of content. Although this work represents an initial step in teaching effective patient-centered electronic communication, additional work is needed to better elucidate best practices for training and assessing healthcare professionals within this domain.

Authors

• Christopher John Mooney, University of Rochester

• Michael S Kelly, University of Rochester

• David Lambert, University of Rochester

• Sarah Elizabeth Peyre, University of Rochester