Communication Quality and Patient Outcomes in HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse



 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal for a K24 Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-oriented Research for Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Beach is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Core Faculty in the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research. Dr. Beach has spent the majority of her career and scholarship over the past 10 years focusing on patient-oriented research in populations with a high prevalence of substance abuse (or perception of substance abuse) that negatively impacts quality of care and health outcomes. Despite a well- established evidence base that high-quality respectful patient-clinician communication and relationships are critically important to patient outcomes, there are wide gaps in our current understanding of patient-clinician communication in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse. One recent systematic review determined that therapeutic alliance between patient and counselor was most important in predicting drug treatment outcomes but little is known about how a therapeutic alliance is built in medical settings between physicians and patients with active drug use. This K24 award will protect time for the applicant to mentor junior investigators and conduct significant original research aimed at improving communication and relationships between clinicians and patients with substance abuse. The aims of the original research are: (1) to explore the quality of provider counseling about substance abuse treatment within routine ambulatory primary HIV care encounters, identify reasons for missed opportunities for counseling, identify correlates of higher quality counseling, and prioritize recommendations for provider training, (2) To discover, using the sociolinguistic technique of conversation analysis, which patterns of asking about and addressing anti-retroviral adherence are most reliable and effective in clinical encounters among HIV-infected patients with substance abuse, and (3) to analyze the vocal tone on a sample of audio-recorded encounters and examine whether higher levels of respectfulness and warmth as rated by independent observers predict continued patient engagement in care among HIV-infected patients with substance abuse. These aims will be addressed in the context of providing mentorship to new and existing junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows and students. The K24 will allow Dr. Beach to more effectively pursue her long-term career goals to enhance respect, to improve communication, and to better the patients' experiences, all for the purpose of reducing suffering and improving health and well-being of these underserved and stigmatized populations.