Existing instruments for assessing physician communication skills: are they valid in a computerized setting?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Informatics
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Physician communication skills are crucial for patient care.
• Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are increasingly integrated into clinical workflows.
• Existing communication assessment tools may not adequately capture physician performance in EMR-integrated environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare physician communication assessment scores using two distinct tools: the SEGUE and an EMR-specific checklist.
• To evaluate the impact of EMR presence on communication assessment outcomes.

Main Methods:

• The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was employed to analyze score differences.
• Sixteen simulated medical encounters were assessed.
• Two independent raters evaluated physician performance on both assessment tools.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in physician scores were observed between the two tools (p<0.05 for both raters).
• Scores on the EMR-specific communication skills checklist were consistently lower than the SEGUE scores.
• This indicates a potential discrepancy in how communication is evaluated with and without EMR consideration.

Conclusions:

• Current communication assessment tools that exclude EMR-relevant tasks may yield inaccurate evaluations.
• There is a need for the development and validation of new assessment instruments that incorporate EMR use.
• Revised tools are essential for accurately measuring physician communication in modern healthcare settings.