Designing and Developing Technologies to Facilitate Clinician-Patient Communication

Abstract

The goal of my research is to design and develop new interactive technologies to facilitate in-clinic clinician-patient communication. While there have been a few successful communication technologies designed for specific purposes, supporting things such as planning knee surgery, communicating with deaf patients, and supporting play therapy, in general this challenge is still open. My intention is to work closely with both clinicians and patients to develop a better understanding of both their perspectives. I will leverage this understanding to developing more supportive in-clinic communication technologies. This research may help us gain a better understanding of how to characterize in-clinic communication and how to design communication technology for this setting. Therefore through this research, first, I will increase our understanding of clinician-patient communication challenges. Next, by applying this understanding, I will design, develop and study potential interactive technology prototypes to support in-clinic clinician-patient communication.