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      Visualizing Empathy in Patient-Practitioner Interactions Using Eye-Tracking Technology: Proof-of-Concept Study

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          Abstract

          Background

          Communication between medical practitioners and patients in health care settings is essential for positive patient health outcomes. Nonetheless, researchers have paid scant attention to the significance of clinical empathy in these interactions as a practical skill.

          Objective

          This study aims to understand clinical empathy during practitioner-patient encounters by examining practitioners’ and patients’ verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Using eye-tracking techniques, we focused on the relationship between traditionally assessed clinical empathy and practitioners’ actual gaze behavior.

          Methods

          We used mixed methods to understand clinical encounters by comparing 3 quantitative measures: eye-tracking data, scores from the Korean version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy–Health Professional, and Consultation and Relational Empathy survey scores. We also conducted qualitative interviews with patients regarding their encounters.

          Results

          One practitioner and 6 patients were involved in the experiment. Perceived empathy on the part of the practitioner was notably higher when the practitioner focused on a patient’s mouth area during the consultation, as indicated by gaze patterns that focused on a patient’s face. Furthermore, an analysis of areas of interest revealed different patterns in interactions with new as opposed to returning patients. Postconsultation interviews suggested that task-oriented and socially oriented empathy are critical in aligning with patients’ expectations of empathetic communication.

          Conclusions

          This proof-of-concept study advocates a multidimensional approach to clinical empathy, revealing that a combination of verbal and nonverbal behaviors significantly reinforces perceived empathy from health care workers. This evolved paradigm of empathy underscores the profound consequences for medical education and the quality of health care delivery.

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          Most cited references41

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          Doctor-patient communication: a review.

          Effective doctor-patient communication is a central clinical function in building a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship, which is the heart and art of medicine. This is important in the delivery of high-quality health care. Much patient dissatisfaction and many complaints are due to breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship. However, many doctors tend to overestimate their ability in communication. Over the years, much has been published in the literature on this important topic. We review the literature on doctor-patient communication.
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            The effects of physician empathy on patient satisfaction and compliance.

            The present study attempted to develop new scales of patient-perceived, empathy-related constructs and to test a model of the relationships of physician empathy and related constructs to patient satisfaction and compliance. Five hundred fifty outpatients at a large university hospital in Korea were interviewed with the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Patient-perceived physician empathy significantly influenced patient satisfaction and compliance via the mediating factors of information exchange, perceived expertise, inter-personal trust, and partnership. Improving physician empathic communication skills should increase patient satisfaction and compliance. Health providers who wish to improve patient satisfaction and compliance should first identify components of their empathic communication needing improvement and then try to refine their skills to better serve patients.
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              Physician Empathy: Definition, Components, Measurement, and Relationship to Gender and Specialty

              There is a dearth of empirical research on physician empathy despite its mediating role in patient-physician relationships and clinical outcomes. This study was designed to investigate the components of physician empathy, its measurement properties, and group differences in empathy scores.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                JMIR Form Res
                JMIR Form Res
                JFR
                formative
                27
                JMIR Formative Research
                JMIR Publications (Toronto, Canada )
                2561-326X
                2024
                11 December 2024
                : 8
                : e57884
                Affiliations
                [1 ]departmentDepartment of Dentistry , Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of Korea
                [2 ]departmentGraduate School of Techno Design , Kookmin University , Seoul, Republic of Korea
                [3 ]departmentSchool of Business , Sungkyunkwan University , 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03063, Republic of Korea, 82 822-760-0479
                Author notes
                HakkyunKimPhD, School of Business, Sungkyunkwan University, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03063, Republic of Korea, 82 822-760-0479; hakkyunkim@ 123456skku.edu
                [*]

                these authors contributed equally

                None declared.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5907-3624
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3794-1686
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7747-5392
                Article
                57884
                10.2196/57884
                11655043
                39661986
                0edd8010-437a-40f4-bfe8-65773e35fa1e
                Copyright © Yuyi Park, Hyungsin ­Kim, Hakkyun Kim. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org)

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

                History
                : 29 February 2024
                : 27 September 2024
                : 30 September 2024
                Categories
                Formative Evaluation of Non-Ehealth Innovations
                Original Paper
                Physician and Health Services Rating by Consumers
                Patient Engagement and Empowerment
                Patient-Clinician Relationship

                clinical empathy,eye tracking,medical communication,nonverbal behavior,doctor-patient encounters

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