Doctor`s Eye Contact Strengthens Bond With Patient, Study Finds

5/2/2014
Doctor's Eye Contact Strengthens Bond With Patient, Study Finds - Health - MSN Healthy Living
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Doctor's Eye Contact
Strengthens Bond With Patient,
Study Finds
By ­­ Randy Dotinga
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SATURDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) ­­ When it comes to bedside manner, the eyes have
it. That's the message of a new study that suggests patients like doctors who make eye
contact and think they're more empathetic.
"The goal is to one day engineer systems and technologies that encourage the right amount of
physician eye contact and other nonverbal social communication," study co­author Enid
Montague, an assistant professor in medicine, general internal medicine and geriatrics at
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
"As we collect more data we can build models that tell us exactly how much eye contact is
needed to help patients trust and connect with a doctor, and design tools and technology that
help doctors stay connected to patients," added Montague, who is also an assistant professor
in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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The researchers came to their conclusions after studying video of 110 first­time visits
between primary care physicians and patients who had cold symptoms. The visits were brief,
at an average of 3 minutes and 38 seconds each, and featured the use of paper charts at a
time when many physicians are moving to computer systems.
"Previous studies have found that nonverbal communication is important based on patient
feedback, but this is one of the few that have looked at these things more broadly
quantitatively," Montague said. "We rigorously looked at what was happening at every point in
time, so we validated a lot of the qualitative studies."
Patients filled out questionnaires after the visits. They thought doctors were more empathetic
when the visits were longer and when the physicians touched them a few times, such as
through a handshake or pat on the back. But patients seemed to be turned off by more than
three touches, perhaps because they came across as fake.
"Simple things such as eye contact can have a big impact on our health care system as a
whole," Montague said. "If patients feel like their doctors aren't being empathetic, then we are
more likely to see patients who aren't returning to care, who aren't adhering to medical advice,
who aren't seeking care, who aren't staying with the same providers. If they switch providers,
that's very costly for the health care system."
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The study recently appeared in the Journal of Participatory Medicine.
More information
Trending on For tips about how to talk with your doctor, try the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
SOURCE: Northwestern University, news release, Oct. 15, 2013
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