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Hagiwara, N., & Dent, R.

Patient-physician communication during racially discordant medical interactions: Limitations with the current coding systems

Physician implicit racial bias has been found to predict racial minority patients’ reports of satisfaction and trust immediately after engaging in racially discordant medical interactions. This suggests physician implicit racial bias is somehow manifested in physician communication behaviors and noticed by patients during the medical interactions. However, it is unclear exactly how physician implicit racial bias manifests behaviorally during racially discordant medical interactions. The authors argue that such lack of understanding might be due to several limitations with the existing patient-physician coding systems. In order to further advance research on patient-physician communication during racially discordant medical interactions, new coding systems tailored for racially discordant medical interactions are required. Specifically, it is suggested that these coding systems need to be capable of assessing physician nonverbal/paraverbal communication behaviors that were found to be positive or negative by racial minority patients themselves. This likely requires innovative research approaches, such as a mixed-methods approach.

FUNDING: NIH/NIDDK (R01DK112009) awarded to the first author (N. Hagiwara).

Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 2016, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 511-529, DOI: 10.4473/TPM23.4.6

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