Empathy Interview Insights: Communication as Cornerstone in Biobanks

As biobanking developed, meeting the needs of stakeholders was established as a priority. Given that, methods that could evaluate these needs while minimizing biases are needed. The empathy interview is one option that has an advantage over focus groups and questionnaires using a one-on-one open-question interview format, it emphasizes participants' experiences. This allows us to understand the needs of stakeholders, such as biobank users, more accurately and is applicable to all types of biobanks.

Vilnius Santaros Klinikos Biobank conducted 10 empathy interviews with the participants selected to represent different groups of biobank users, for example, for-profit (n = 5) or nonprofit researchers (n = 5). The questions were broad in order to initiate storytelling. Thematic analysis was based on predetermined codes (on researcher's ability to find, the decision to engage, and the willingness to return when the service is needed again) and inductive codes ("Communication," "Technical," "Human resources," and "Bureaucracy"), which became apparent after seeing the data. Besides this, content analysis was conducted for the most abundant keywords sorted into four categories "Communication," "Speed," "Quality," and "Budget."

During the thematic analysis, we identified that most of the challenges faced by biobank users were related to their willingness to return for repeated services. The participants described the issues related to communication, sample labeling, data transfer standardization, quality concerns after receiving the samples, as well as timely processes. Content analysis showed that clear, trustworthy, and prompt communication was highly important to participants.

This study demonstrates that empathy interviews are a viable tool that can be used by biobanks to understand the needs of their users. Biobanks may find that the greatest opportunity to improve the researcher experience lies in refining the processes associated with long-term engagement. Besides that, communication seems to be imperative to the participants.