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Existing instruments for assessing physician communication skills: are they valid in a computerized setting?
Shiri Assis-Hassid1, Tsipi Heart, Iris Reychav
1Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Objectives:
This study aims to highlight the differences in physicians' scores on two communication assessment tools: the SEGUE and an EMR-specific communication skills checklist. The first tool ignores the presence of the EMR in the exam room and the second, though not formally validated, rather focuses on it.
Methods:
We use the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test to compare physicians' scores on each of the tools during 16 simulated medical encounters that were rated by two different raters.
Results:
Results show a significant difference between physicians' scores on each tool (z=-3.519, p<0.05 for the first rater, and z=-3.521, p<0.05 for the second rater), while scores on the EMR-specific communication skills checklist were significantly and consistently lower.
Conclusion:
These results imply that current communication assessment tools that do not incorporate items that are relevant for communication tasks during EMR use may produce inaccurate results.
Practice Implications:
We therefore suggest that a new instrument, possibly an extension of existing ones, should be developed and empirically validated.
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