Urology HEIRS: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study for Video-Based Research on Physician-Family Communication in Pediatric Urology Visits.

Abstract

Patient- and family-centered communication is essential to healthcare equity. However, less is known about how urologists implement evidence-based communication and dynamics involved in caring for diverse pediatric patients and caregivers. We sought to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability using video-based research to characterize physician-family communication in pediatric urology. We assembled a multidisciplinary team to conduct a multi-phase learning health systems project to establish the Urology HEIRS (Health Experiences and Interactions in Real-time Studies) corpus for research and interventions. This paper reports the first phase, evaluating feasibility and acceptability based on consent rate, patient diversity, and qualitative identification of verbal and paraverbal features of physician-family communication. We used applied conversation analysis methodology to identify salient practices across eight pediatric urologists. We recruited 111 families at two clinic sites, of these 82 families (N = 85 patients, ages 0-20) participated in the study with a consent rate of 73.9%. The racial/ethnic composition of the sample was 45.9% non-Hispanic White, 30.6% any race of Hispanic origin, 16.5% non-Hispanic Black/African American, 4.7% any ethnicity of Asian/Asian American, 2.3% some other race/ethnicity, and 24.7% of families used interpreters. We identified 11 verbal and paraverbal communication practices that impacted physician-family dynamics, including unique challenges with technology-mediated interpreters. Video-based research is feasible and acceptable with diverse families in pediatric urology settings. The Urology HEIRS corpus will enable future systematic studies of physician-family communication in pediatric urology and provides an empirical basis for specialty-specific training in patient- and family-centered communication.