title: Existing instruments for assessing physician communication skills: are they valid in a computerized setting?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to highlight the differences in physicians' scores on two communication assessment tools: the SEGUE and an EMR-specific communication skills checklist. The first tool ignores the presence of the EMR in the exam room and the second, though not formally validated, rather focuses on it.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test to compare physicians' scores on each of the tools during 16 simulated medical encounters that were rated by two different raters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show a significant difference between physicians' scores on each tool (z=-3.519, p<0.05 for the first rater, and z=-3.521, p<0.05 for the second rater), while scores on the EMR-specific communication skills checklist were significantly and consistently lower.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results imply that current communication assessment tools that do not incorporate items that are relevant for communication tasks during EMR use may produce inaccurate results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We therefore suggest that a new instrument, possibly an extension of existing ones, should be developed and empirically validated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Electronic address: hassids@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shiri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Assis-Hassid
authors.forename: Tsipi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heart
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Reychav
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Pliskin
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reis
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014743:Videotape Recording
keywords: Communication skills; Communication task; EMR; Electronic medical records; Patient–doctor communication; Primary care