DECEMBER 16, 2022
Paul J. Barr, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
About the Presentation: Paul leads a multidisciplinary group of researchers, patients, caregivers, and clinicians working together to understand how to improve the communication of clinic visit information. Paul and his team have developed novel open-source recording software, HealthPAL (Health Personal Audio Library). HealthPAL supports the recording of clinic visits, performs secure transfers of these recordings to a HIPAA-compliant server, and allows patients to set up a password-protected account to listen, share, bookmark key content and add notes to recordings online via computer or smartphone. Using natural language processing (NLP), HealthPAL’s advanced features include automatic bookmarking of key visit information linked to online lay information at MedlinePlus. In this talk, Paul will report on the findings of three recently completed pilot trials. In these trials, the team explored the added value of sharing different types of recording with patients in outpatient settings: audio recordings, video recordings, and audio curated using natural language processing. Paul will also describe how these trials have formed the basis for several newly funded initiatives.
About the Presenter: Paul is an Associate Professor in The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice with advanced training in quantitative and qualitative methods. He received a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Public Health (Health Services Research stream) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, England, and a PhD in Health Services Research from Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland. Paul’s research involves developing and evaluating measurement tools and interventions, to strengthen shared decision making and improve the communication of medical information with patients and their families. His recent work includes the development of a decision support tool for individuals with depression in collaboration with Mental Health America, with the goal of increasing mental health literacy and improving access to online evidence-based treatments.
Paul is also a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Patient and Family Engagement awardee. Through this award, Paul formed the Open Recordings research group, a multidisciplinary group of stakeholders and patients who study the potential clinical utility of recording information about healthcare clinic visits. The group is currently developing Health PAL, a personal health library where audio/video recordings of clinic visits are accessible to patients and caregivers, and key information is automatically indexed and connected to trustworthy online resources, with the goal of improving self-management (funding: National Library of Medicine; Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation). He has studied the use of recordings in different clinical settings and leads a Multi-Site Trial, funded by the National Institute on Aging, of the routine use of recordings in older adults in primary care.