Educational psychologist Daniel Morrow is leading a project aimed at helping people with low health literacy better understand their health data. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — If viewing your latest medical test results on your doctor's online portal leaves you scratching your head and wondering whether to start planning your 100th-birthday bash or begin writing your will, you're not alone. Imagine how different that experience might be if instead you were able to view a video in which a physician explained your test results to you in layman's terms, and used graphics to compare your test scores with ideal scores and convey your risks of having a heart attack, stroke or other serious health condition. A computer-generated physician, now under development, explains diabetes and cholesterol test results to would-be patients in videos designed for viewing on electronic medical record portals. The physician - or computer agent, as it's called in a new paper about the project - was developed collaboratively by scientists at the University of Illinois' Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and Carle Foundation Hospital's Research Institute. The goal of the project is to make electronic medical record portal messages more useful and engaging for patients, particularly older adults with lower levels of health literacy. "The dialogue delivered by the computer agent is similar to that which would occur during a routine office visit with a physician," said co-author Dr. William Schuh, Carle's chief medical information officer.
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