Utilizing emerging technologies to promote more efficient face-to-face patient-clinician communication

In literature there are different projects showing how new information and communications technology (ICT) systems can be used for enhancing communication between and among patients and clinicians over Internet. Besides advantages these systems offer to both patients and clinicians there is also great concern that utilizing new technologies can limit and negatively influence patient-clinician face-to-face communication. This paper underlines these concerns and describes two projects in our research center that promote more effective offline patient-clinician communication.