Extraction of important interactions in medical interviewsusing nonverbal information

Abstract

We propose a method of extracting important interaction patterns in medical interviews. Because the interview is a major step where doctor-patient communication takes place, improving the skill and the quality of the medical interview will lead to a better medical care. A pattern mining method for multimodal interaction logs, such as gestures and speech, is applied to medical interviews in order to extract certain doctor-patient interactions. As a result, we demonstrated that several interesting patterns are extracted and we examined their interpretations. The extracted patterns are considered to be ones that doctors should acquire in training and practice for the medical interview.

Computer analysis system of the physician‐patient consultation process

“…Despite these limitations, this study has contributed to an understanding of analysis of the physician and patient consultation process in Japanese medical communication. We are now developing a new system that analyzes non-verbal communication (Sawamoto et al, 2007). Further investigation is needed to explore the communication dynamics in other clinical areas, and its relation to patient outcomes.…”