TY - JOUR
T1 - Physician gaze shifts in patient-physician interactions
T2 - functions, accounts and responses
AU - Jongerius, Chiara
AU - Hillen, Marij A.
AU - Romijn, Johannes A.
AU - Smets, Ellen M. A.
AU - Koole, Tom
N1 - Funding Information: The authors want to thank all patients and physicians who participated. The authors also extend their gratitude to Joyce Doldersum and Timara van den Hurk for their precious help in the analysis. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Objectives: Physician gaze towards patients is fundamental for medical consultations. Physicians’ use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) affects their gaze towards patients, and may negatively influence this interaction. We aimed to study conversation patterns during gaze shifts of physicians from the patient towards the EHR. Methods: Outpatient consultations (N = 8) were eye-tracked. Interactions around physician gaze shifts towards the computer were transcribed. Results: We found that physician gaze shifts have different interactional functions, e.g., introducing a topic switch or entering data into the EHR. Furthermore, physicians differ in how they account for their gaze shifts, i.e., both implicitly and explicitly. Third, patients vary in treating the gaze shift as an indication to continue their turn or not. Conclusions: Our results suggest that physician gaze shifts vary in function, in how physicians account for them, and in how they influence the conversation. Future research should take into account distinctions when relating gaze to patient outcomes. Practice implications: Physicians may be aware of the interactional context of their gaze behaviour. Patients respond differently to various types of gaze shifts. How physicians handle gaze shifts can therefore have different consequences for the interaction.
AB - Objectives: Physician gaze towards patients is fundamental for medical consultations. Physicians’ use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) affects their gaze towards patients, and may negatively influence this interaction. We aimed to study conversation patterns during gaze shifts of physicians from the patient towards the EHR. Methods: Outpatient consultations (N = 8) were eye-tracked. Interactions around physician gaze shifts towards the computer were transcribed. Results: We found that physician gaze shifts have different interactional functions, e.g., introducing a topic switch or entering data into the EHR. Furthermore, physicians differ in how they account for their gaze shifts, i.e., both implicitly and explicitly. Third, patients vary in treating the gaze shift as an indication to continue their turn or not. Conclusions: Our results suggest that physician gaze shifts vary in function, in how physicians account for them, and in how they influence the conversation. Future research should take into account distinctions when relating gaze to patient outcomes. Practice implications: Physicians may be aware of the interactional context of their gaze behaviour. Patients respond differently to various types of gaze shifts. How physicians handle gaze shifts can therefore have different consequences for the interaction.
KW - Conversation analysis
KW - Electronic health record
KW - Eye-tracking
KW - Physician gaze shifts
KW - Physician-patient interaction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126320910&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.02.018
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.02.018
M3 - Article
C2 - 35287994
SN - 0738-3991
VL - 105
SP - 2116
EP - 2129
JO - Patient Education and Counseling
JF - Patient Education and Counseling
IS - 7
ER -