Patient‐Centered Communication: Exploring the Dentist's Role in the Era of e‐Patients and Health 2.0

Abstract

In today's digital era, people are increasingly relying on the Internet-including social media-to access health information and inform their health decisions. This article describes an exploratory initiative to better understand and define the role of dentists in patient education in the context of e-patients and Health 2.0. This initiative consisted of four phases. In Phase I, an interdisciplinary expert advisory committee was assembled for a roundtable discussion about patients' health information-seeking behaviors online. In Phase II, a pilot case study was conducted, with methods and analysis informed by Phase I recommendations. Phase III consisted of a debriefing conference to outline future areas of research on modernizing health communication strategies. In Phase IV, the findings and working theories were presented to 75 dental students, who then took a survey regarding their perspectives with the objective of guiding potential curriculum design for predoctoral courses. The results of the survey showed that the validity of online content was often secondary to the strength of the network sharing it and that advocacy online could be more effective if it allowed for emotional connections with peers rather than preserving accuracy of the information. Students expressed high interest in learning how to harness modern health communications in their clinical care since the role of the dentist is evolving from giving information to giving personalized guidance against the backdrop of an often contradictory modern information environment. The authors recommend that the dental profession develop patient-centered health communication training for predoctoral students and professional development and continuing education for practicing professionals.

Medical reliability of a video‐sharing website: The gingival recession model

“…Data analysis also suggests a more complex role and responsibility of the web educators. In fact, the role of educators is evolving from simple provision of information to a more sophisticated role that includes guidance, analysis and corroboration of patients’ findings and decisions they formulate through their surfing over the Internet . Moreover, it could be anticipated that patients’ needs and expectations are going to change with the easier and more open access to health‐related information that are changing patients’ behaviours and attitudes .…”

“…In dentistry, the importance of health communication has been recognised as an important component of the practice . Health communication techniques include referring patients to the Internet for health information .…”

“…Health communication techniques include referring patients to the Internet for health information . However, in dentistry as everywhere in the medical field, there are concerns regarding the quality and the accuracy of health information on the Internet, especially due to the lack of peer reviewing and control over the information being posted or published . These concerns are more important concerning information published via social media networks and websites, such as Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, which lack any filtering system over the posted material and information.…”

The Use of Social Media by Dental Students for Communication and Learning: Two Viewpoints

“…Regarding social interactions in medical education, Chretien et al pointed out that both patient and student information must be protected through HIPAA and FERPA compliance 22 . Seymour et al used an exploratory initiative to define a new role for dentists in patient education at a time when patients use online sources to answer many of their health care questions 24 . Ventola described how the University of Rhode Island has connected students to geriatric patients on Facebook to promote students' communication skills and empathy for this population, while helping patients learn to use social media to battle loneliness and reduced social contact associated with later years of life 1 .…”

Communication – An Effective and Efficient Tool in Dentistry

“…Most of the dental schools have added health communication to their curriculum. It helps in teaching and assessing competencies in communication skills among the dental students for patient education and health promotion [14].…”