Center for Health and Business
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Virtual Communication Research Lab

Virtual Communications Research Lab (VCR)

Virtual Communications Research Lab logoThe Center for Health and Business supports a robust international collaboration between researchers at Bentley, McGill, and Brown Universities. The mission of the Virtual Communications Research (VCR) Lab is to leverage immersive technologies to study and improve the human experience of communication in healthcare. The group conducts research in serious illness communication and palliative care using advanced virtual reality platforms. 

VCR Leadership Team

Danielle Blanch-Hartigan

Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, PhD, MPH

A Professor of Health Studies in the Department of Natural and Applied Sciences at Bentley University, in the Greater Boston area. A former Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Blanch-Hartigan applies principles and methods from social psychology to the study of clinician-patient communication.

Bio
Jonathan D. Ericson

Jonathan D. Ericson, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Experience Design (formerly Information Design and Corporate Communication), and director of the Immersive Design Lab at Bentley University, Dr. Ericson provides the following experience and expertise to the VCR lab: VR and cognitive science; directs the Immersphere, a VR lab where he teaches and conducts research in the use of VR and other immersive environments; and current collaborator on development of VR oncology clinic.

Bio
Justin J. Sanders

Justin J. Sanders, MD, MSc

Dr. Sanders is the Kappy and Eric M. Flanders Chair of Palliative Care at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Sanders work sits at the intersection of culture, communication, and serious illness, with a focus on disparities and quality measurement in serious illness communication.

Bio

VCR Collaborations

International Colleagues

VR in actionIn July 2022, Dr. Liesbeth van Vliet, PhD, Young Investigator Grantee Dutch Cancer Society and Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden in The Netherlands, along with junior researcher Janine Westendorp, visited the VCR Lab at Bentley University to talk about their respective VR labs, current projects, and future work together. 

Dr. Liesbeth van Vliet and Janine Westendorp brought their VR technology with them to demonstrate their capabilities to the VCR team and vice versa. The teams discussed how they could work together in the near future on research that utilizes the exciting VR technologies. 

Janine Westendorp is currently working on VR communications training around the placebo effects of communication (i.e. expectancies and empathy), which can draw on expertise from both research teams. 

 

VCR Lab Team Discussion
VCR Lab Visit Team Outside
VCR Lab and Netherlands Team

VCR Presentations & Publications

Environment selection, conversation programming, and avatar presentation in a VR programming module (TaleSpin Copilot DesignerTM)

Methodological Innovations to Strengthen Evidence-Based Serious Illness Communication

Background/Objective

A growing population of those affected by serious illness, prognostic uncertainty, patient diversity, and healthcare digitalization pose challenges for the future of serious illness communication. Yet, there is paucity of evidence to support serious illness communication behaviors among clinicians. Herein, we propose three methodological innovations to advance the basic science of serious illness communication.

Results

First, advanced computation techniques – e.g. machine-learning techniques and natural language processing – offer the possibility to measure the characteristics and complex patterns of audible serious illness communication in large datasets. Second, immersive technologies – e.g., virtual- and augmented reality – allow for experimentally manipulating and testing the effects of specific communication strategies, and interactional and environmental aspects of serious illness communication. Third, digital-health technologies – e.g., shared notes and videoconferences – can be used to unobtrusively observe and manipulate communication, and compare in-person to digitally-mediated communication elements and effects. Immersive and digital health technologies allow integration of physiological measurement (e.g. synchrony or gaze) that may advance our understanding of patient experience.

Conclusion/Practice Implications

New technologies and measurement approaches, while imperfect, will help advance our understanding of the epidemiology and quality of serious illness communication in an evolving healthcare environment.

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The Virtual Doctor Is In: The Effect of Telehealth Visits on Patient Experience

 

Abstract

COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of telehealth. With this shift comes a need for empirically based research regarding the effect of telehealth on patient experience. The present study employed an online survey (N = 996) examining whether a patient's perceptions of a telehealth visit predict the likelihood that they will schedule a future telehealth visit, and their recall of clinical information. Participants viewed a video of a real clinician delivering information on a COVID-19 antibody test, and responded to demographic, socioemotional, and cognitive items. We found that individuals who were extremely satisfied with their interaction with the doctor, for every 1-point increase in satisfaction, they were 72.5% times more likely to revisit the doctor (p < .01). These results also provide insight to researchers and medical professionals regarding patient perceptions of virtual encounters and suggest best practices to consider as we further integrate telehealth.

Presented by Ja-Nae Duane at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2022

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Health-Gears
Telehealth background conditions

Patient Preference for Telehealth Background Shapes Impressions of Physicians and Information Recall: A Randomized Experiment

Introduction

Telehealth is increasing rapidly as a health care delivery platform, but we lack empirical evidence regarding how telehealth environments can affect patient experiences. The present research determined how physician's telehealth backgrounds affect various patient outcomes.

Methods

Participants viewed a 30-s video of a physician with one of six different virtual backgrounds and reported various socioemotional and cognitive responses to the mock telehealth experience.

Fig. 1. Telehealth background conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to view the telehealth video with one of six office backgrounds.

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Environmental Considerations for Effective Telehealth Encounters: A Narrative Review and Implications for Best Practice

Background

Due to the reduction of in-person visits, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to expansions in the use of telehealth technology to provide patient care, yet clinicians lack evidence-based guidance on how to most effectively use video communication to enhance patient experience and outcomes.

Methods

A narrative review was conducted to describe environmental factors derived from research in social psychology and human-computer interaction (HCI) that may guide effective video-based clinician-patient telehealth communication.

Fig. 1. Best practices for designing effective telehealth environments The following best practices were derived from research in social psychology and HCI that may guide effective video-based clinician–patient telehealth communication. HCI, human–computer interaction.

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Best practices for designing effective telehealth environments
Flow chart for article search and screening process.

Virtual environments to study emotional responses to clinical communication: A scoping review

Objective

This scoping review explores the potential for virtual environments (VE) to evaluate emotional outcomes in clinical communication research. Authors representing multiple disciplines use review results to propose potential research opportunities and considerations.

Methods

We utilized a structured framework for scoping reviews. We searched four literature databases for relevant articles. We applied multidisciplinary perspectives to synthesize relevant potential opportunities for emotion-focused communications research using VE.

Fig. 1. Flow chart for article search and screening process.

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