Effects of an interactive symptom communication tool for children with heart disease on patient-provider communication in outpatient care: Preliminary results

While children with chronic illness can experience many physical, functional, and psychosocial symptoms and problems, they do not have the same verbal skills as adults to communicate about distressing symptoms, leaving them at particular risk that their problems remain under-diagnosed and treated. This study investigated the effects of an interactive communication tool for children with heart disease, called Sisom, on patient-provider communication in pediatric cardiology out-patient consultations. Fourty-two children aged 7–13 diagnosed with heart disease used Sisom in preparation for their consultation. The resulting summaries of the children's perceived problems were shared with their nurses and physicians for use during the consultation. A control group, matched on gender and age (n = 42), received usual care. All consultations were video-taped and analyzed with the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Compared to the control group, almost twice as many symptoms and problems were addressed when Sisom wa...