CTSI Grant Designed to Improve Doctor-Patient Communication

The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin has awarded a $12,500 “Innovations in Healthcare Delivery Pilot Model Grant” to develop a dynamic feedback mechanism designed at improving communication between doctors and patients in a hospital setting.

Ankur Segon, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a hospitalist at Froedtert Hospital, is the primary investigator of the grant.

This project is designed around the thought that high quality communication between doctors and patients is a key component of high quality care. In this project, Dr. Segon will design a website that will provide daily feedback to physicians on how their current patients feel about their doctor’s communication skills. Patients will respond to a number of queries including whether their questions have been answered satisfactorily, and if they feel their physician is treating them with courtesy and respect.

Physicians will have access to those answers, and Dr. Segon will study the impact of that feedback on physician behavior. Additionally, the makeup of the treatment team will be considered in the evaluation of patient satisfaction—do residents and/or physician assistants impact the patient’s level of satisfaction? The third component of the project involves physician interviews to understand their perspectives on barriers to high-quality doctor – patient communication.

The “Innovations in Healthcare Delivery” grants are supported by the Medical College Physicians, MCW’s physician group practice caring for adult patients, and the CTSI. The fundamental goal is to stimulate innovative pilot projects that promise to measurably and meaningfully improve delivery of healthcare in terms of clinical quality, patient experience, value and efficiency.

CTSI is part of a national consortium of top medical research institutions. Working together, the CTSI institutions are committed to improve human health by streamlining science, transforming training environments and improving the conduct, quality and dissemination of clinical and translational research. The CTSI program is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.