Paying attention to relatives of cancer patients: What can we learn from their online writings?

Objective: Relatives of cancer patients often play a crucial role in care, while their own needs generally receive scant attention. We investigate those topics on which relatives share information online.

Methods: We coded user-generated content written by 185 relatives on a major Dutch cancer site (kanker.

The Effect of Screen-to-Screen Versus Face-to-Face Consultation on Doctor-Patient Communication: An Experimental Study with Simulated Patients.

Background: Despite the emergence of Web-based patient-provider contact, it is still unclear how the quality of Web-based doctor-patient interactions differs from face-to-face interactions.

Objective: This study aimed to examine (1) the impact of a consultation medium on doctors' and patients' communicative behavior in terms of information exchange, interpersonal relationship building, and shared decision making and (2) the mediating role of doctors' and patients' communicative behavior on satisfaction with both types of consultation medium.

Methods: Doctor-patient consultations on pelvic organ prolapse were simulated, both in a face-to-face and in a screen-to-screen (video) setting.

The link between perception of clinical empathy and nonverbal behavior: The effect of a doctor's gaze and body orientation.

Objectives: Clinical empathy is considered to be one of the most important skills for medical professionals. It is primarily conveyed by nonverbal behavior; however, little is known about the importance of different types of cues and their relation to engagement and sincerity as possible correlates of perceived clinical empathy (PCE). In this study, we explored the effect of doctor's gaze and body orientation on PCE with the help of 32 video vignettes.

Sharing decisions during diagnostic consultations; an observational study in pediatric oncology.

Objective: Children and parents need to make important decisions in the period of being informed about the diagnosis of childhood cancer. Although parents' and children's involvement is legally required, it is unclear whether oncologists involve them. This study explored which decisions families face, how oncologists involve them in shared decision-making (SDM) and which factors are associated with this process.

Automatic detection of confusion in elderly users of a web-based health instruction video.

Background: Because of cognitive limitations and lower health literacy, many elderly patients have difficulty understanding verbal medical instructions. Automatic detection of facial movements provides a nonintrusive basis for building technological tools supporting confusion detection in healthcare delivery applications on the Internet.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-four elderly participants (70-90 years old) were recorded while watching Web-based health instruction videos involving easy and complex medical terminology.

Talking with parents about end-of-life decisions for their children.

Background And Objective: Retrospective studies show that most parents prefer to share in decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment (LST) from their children. We do not yet know how physicians and parents communicate about these decisions and to what extent parents share in the decision-making process.

Methods: We conducted a prospective exploratory study in 2 Dutch University Medical Centers.

Patients' and health professionals' use of social media in health care: motives, barriers and expectations.

Objective: To investigate patients' and health professionals' (a) motives and use of social media for health-related reasons, and (b) barriers and expectations for health-related social media use.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive online survey among 139 patients and 153 health care professionals in obstetrics and gynecology. In this survey, we asked the respondents about their motives and use of social network sites (SNS: Facebook and Hyves), Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Activity and participation of children and adolescents with unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency: an online focus group study.

Objective: To assess whether children/adolescents with unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency experience activity or participation limitations and how they deal with those limitations.

Methods: A qualitative study using online focus group interviews was held with 42 children/adolescents (in 3 age groups: 8-12, 13-16, and 17-20 years), 17 parents and 19 health professionals. Questions were posted concerning activities, participation, prosthetic use, psychosocial functioning, and rehabilitation care.

Multitasking during patient handover in the recovery room.

Background: Loss of information occurs frequently during handover and affects the continuity of care. Improving handovers is therefore a key patient safety goal. After surgery, the patient is transferred to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), and handover to the nurse includes both handover of monitoring equipment (connecting electrocardiogram, calibrating arterial lines, infusion pumps, etc.

Tailored information for cancer patients on the Internet: effects of visual cues and language complexity on information recall and satisfaction.

Objective: This study was designed to investigate the effects of visual cues and language complexity on satisfaction and information recall using a personalised website for lung cancer patients. In addition, age effects were investigated.

Methods: An experiment using a 2 (complex vs.

Communicating with child patients in pediatric oncology consultations: a vignette study on child patients', parents', and survivors' communication preferences.

Objective: To investigate the preferences of children with cancer, their parents, and survivors of childhood cancer regarding medical communication with child patients and variables associated with these preferences.

Methods: Preferences regarding health-care provider empathy in consultations, and children's involvement in information exchange and medical decision making were investigated by means of vignettes. Vignettes are brief descriptions of hypothetical situations, in which important factors are systematically varied following an experimental design.

Online focus groups as a tool to collect data in hard-to-include populations: examples from paediatric oncology.

Background: The purpose of this article is to describe and evaluate the methodology of online focus group discussions within the setting of paediatric oncology.

Methods: Qualitative study consisting of separate moderated asynchronous online discussion groups with 7 paediatric cancer patients (aged 8-17), 11 parents, and 18 survivors of childhood cancer (aged 8-17 at diagnosis).

Results: All three participant groups could be actively engaged over a one-week period.

Young patients', parents', and survivors' communication preferences in paediatric oncology: results of online focus groups.

Background: Guidelines in paediatric oncology encourage health care providers to share relevant information with young patients and parents to enable their active participation in decision making. It is not clear to what extent this mirrors patients' and parents' preferences. This study investigated communication preferences of childhood cancer patients, parents, and survivors of childhood cancer.

Models and theories in studies on educating and counseling children about physical health: a systematic review.

The aim of this review is to gain a comprehensive view on the theories and models referred to in studies on educating and counseling children about physical health. A computer search was conducted using PubMed Medline, and Silverplatter Webspirs Psycinfo. Original studies, reviews, and theoretical papers published between 1992-2003 were included.

Communication in context: new directions in communication research.

By focusing attention almost exclusively on a single encounter, researchers have adopted a rather restricted view on studying communication in health care. After all, communication does not take place in a vacuum but is influenced by the context in which it takes place. We would therefore strongly recommend to broaden the perspective of communication research.

Doctor-parent-child relationships: a 'pas de trois'.

Adult participants play a pivotal role in doctor-parent-child interactions at the general practitioner's (GP's) surgery. The child's opportunities to participate are rather limited and parental speaking for the child is, in a way, institutionally co-constructed. This study aimed at further characterizing the relationships within this triad by developing a typology of doctor-parent-child interactions, which classified adult behavior in terms of supporting versus non-supporting child participation.