profession
Hidden recorders will help study physician communications
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 28, 2011
A five-year, $2.7 million National Institutes of Health grant announced in March will fund a study using hidden audio recorders to capture physician interactions with standardized patients to better understand how doctors' communication styles may vary by patients' age, gender, ethnicity or personality.
Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and the University of Michigan Medical School will ask physicians involved in the study to consent to having their visits with standardized patients recorded. The visits will be unannounced, and the interactions will be studied to see how they affect clinical decisions such as test-ordering and prescribing.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/03/28/prbf0328.htm.
