![\"\"](\"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/01\/PaulBarr_Insider.jpg\")
<\/a>Q:<\/strong> What has been the primary focus of your research?<\/em><\/p>\n Barr: <\/strong>My focus has been on really amplifying the voice of patients and their families in healthcare through better patient-centered communication and using digital tools to support that. I\u2019ve done that in a variety of ways but principally through the process of shared decision making as one of the major thrusts of my work.<\/p>\n In a nutshell, shared decision making is a collaborative process where healthcare providers and patients work together to make informed decisions about treatment options.<\/p>\n And then the bigger area for me now, the all-encompassing work, has been the Open Recordings<\/a> research group that I launched in 2015. The Open Recordings team is an incredible group of people I have the good fortune to work with every day. We are a multidisciplinary group of researchers, patients, caregivers, and clinicians working together to understand how to improve the communication of clinic visit information. We also make great coffee for anyone who wants to visit us!<\/p>\n Q:<\/em><\/strong> Can you describe what the Open Recordings group does, and why its work is so important?<\/em><\/p>\n Barr:<\/strong> Broadly, we study patient-centered communication. Our team has a special interest in the clinical implications and applications of audio and video recording clinic visit interactions. We believe that reviewing recordings can be used to improve how patients and their care partners process information from their visits and use that information to better manage their health at home, where most of the care happens.<\/p>\n Traditionally, patients have received very short summaries of their visits. But they\u2019re just not enough because so much is discussed. Studies have shown that patients forget 40 to 80 percent of the medical information they\u2019ve been given within 15 minutes of leaving the doctor\u2019s office, so having a recording of the visit can be immensely valuable. We really want to understand what\u2019s happening in the visits, what\u2019s important to the person, and how we can share this information in a comprehensive and helpful manner.<\/p>\n With the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the various benefits it can offer, we\u2019ve been exploring how to use new technologies like AI to analyze visit interactions in ways that can better support patients, their loved ones, and clinicians. For example, we have developed a platform, HealthPAL<\/a>, where we use AI to highlight key visit information from clinic visit recordings for patients and provide links to trustworthy resources. We have also been exploring whether we can automate the assessment of patient-centered communication through the analysis of visit conversations.<\/p>\n Q:<\/em><\/strong> Are there some specific areas of care that your research has focused on?<\/em><\/p>\n Barr:<\/strong> My colleagues and I have worked in a number of different areas, such as diabetes, co-occurring disorders, older adults, and dementia. For example, we have two large clinical trials across the U.S., supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), in which we\u2019re looking at the impact of patient visit recordings on the care of older patients.<\/p>\n While those trials will be key in helping us determine if recordings improve patient health outcomes, we\u2019re very encouraged by the results of other research we\u2019ve been conducting. We recently published a multisite study<\/a> on the feasibility of sharing digital audio recordings of clinic visits online with older adults in primary care settings, where a lot of the focus of my research has been.<\/p>\n The main purpose of that project was to gauge older adults\u2019 acceptance of visit recordings and to determine if they could be integrated into routine care. We found that among those who received audio, 85 percent logged into their recordings and the retention rate over a three-month period was 98 percent. This not only signified that there was a real interest from older adults in accessing their recordings, but also our team\u2019s commitment to engaging them in the design of the trial from the outset. We also found that patients who received visit recordings had higher mental health scores after three months compared to those who received traditional care.<\/p>\n In collaboration with data scientists, our team plans to integrate more AI features into our work. The possibilities are endless, but we must be guided by theory and the patient communities we serve. For instance, in a current R01 project funded by the National Institute on Aging, VOiCES3<\/sup><\/a>, our team is building on the generative AI features available in HealthPAL to enhance patient-centered communication for individuals living with dementia, their loved ones, and their clinicians. We are working closely with patients and their care partners to identify and optimize aspects of visit communication that lead to better experiences and health outcomes.<\/p>\n Due to my work in visit recording, I was invited to join an international team of researchers, industry leaders, and advocacy groups to develop best practices for using AI in medicine, led by Professor Yuri Quintana from the Division of Clinical Informatics (DCI) Network at Harvard. We have held conferences and published papers on the responsible use of AI in medicine for clinical decision support<\/a> and patients<\/a>. I have learned a lot and am eager to learn more and contribute further in this rapidly evolving field.<\/p>\n Q:<\/em><\/strong> As you look ahead, what do you hope the impact of your research will be?<\/em><\/p>\n