Empathy in patient-clinician interactions when using telecommunication: A rapid review of the evidence

Georgina Budd; Dan Griffiths; Jeremy Howick; Jane Vennik; Felicity L Bishop; Nancy Durieux; Hazel A Everitt

doi:10.1016/j.pecinn.2022.100065

Empathy in patient-clinician interactions when using telecommunication: A rapid review of the evidence

PEC Innov. 2022 Dec:1:100065. doi: 10.1016/j.pecinn.2022.100065. Epub 2022 Jul 16.

Authors

Georgina Budd¹, Dan Griffiths², Jeremy Howick³, Jane Vennik⁴, Felicity L Bishop^{2

5}, Nancy Durieux⁵, Hazel A Everitt⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University. Haldane Building, University Singleton Park Campus, Sketty, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
² Centre for Clinical and Community Applications of Health Psychology, University of Southampton, School of Psychology (B44), University Rd, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
³ Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Primary Care Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Rd, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
⁴ Primary Care Research Center, University of Southampton. Aldermoor Health Centre, Aldermoor Close Southampton, SO16 5ST, UK.
⁵ Research Unit for a life-Course perspective on Health & Education, Faculty of Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, and Educational Sciences, University of Liege, Place des Orateurs 2, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the replacement of many face-to-face healthcare consultations with telephone consultations. Little is known about the extent to which empathy can be expressed in telephone consultations. Our objective is to review evidence related to empathy in telephone consultations including clinical outcomes, and patient/practitioner experiences.

Methods: Searches of Medline/Ovid and PsycINFO/Ovid were undertaken. Titles and abstract screening, data extraction, and risk of bias were undertaken by two reviewers. Discrepancies were resolved in discussion with additional reviewers. Included studies were specific to tele-communications with empirical data on empathy related to patient outcomes/views, published (in English), 2010-2021. Studies that did not mention empathy explicitly were excluded.

Results: Our search yielded 740 individual records and 8 studies (527 patients, 20 practitioners) met inclusion criteria: Some barriers to expression of empathy were noted, but no major obstacles were reported. However, data was sparse and most studies had a high risk of bias.

Conclusion: Empathy in telephone consultations is possible, (though the loss of non-verbal cues and touch can present barriers) however the research does not yet identify how.

Innovation: It is possible to establish and display empathy in telephone consultations, but future research needs to identify how this can be optimized.

Funding: This work was supported by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research grant (project number 389). The University of Southampton's Primary Care Department is a member of the NIHR School for Primary Care Research and supported by NIHR Research funds. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. Protocol registration. PROSPERO (CRD42021238087).

Keywords: Empathy; Tele-health; patient-clinician communication; tele-communication.

Publication types

Review