Timothy Caulfield on Enhancing Information Dissemination in Pediatric Dermatology

Timothy Caulfield, JD, professor in the Faculty of Law in the School of Public Health and research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, discusses strategies for health care providers to build trust and communicate with patients and caregivers, as well as to overcome cultural and language barriers. He also explains the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in disseminating information in the pediatric dermatology field.

Caulfield expanded upon these subjects during his presentation this past weekend at the Society of Pediatric Dermatology conference.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

What strategies can health care providers use to effectively communicate accurate information to parents and caregivers and build trust among them?

Look, it's really important to listen. I have to remind myself to do that because it can be a frustrating space. You really have to listen, you have to get a sense of why do they believe these things? What drew them into the vortex, so to speak? Get a sense of what their concerns are so you can make sure any response you have is empathetic and also speaks to their values.

You want to give them a path to credible information. People don't change their minds in front of you very often, right? You want to give them a moment to think about this stuff. I have family members that are clinicians, and they tell me that; the patient will go back and stew on it, and they will have changed their mind. You need to be patient, right?

There is also this interesting tension. I'm not a clinician, so I know this from the literature, but there is an interesting tension between wanting to maintain a strong physician-patient relationship and trying to counter the misinformation that they're believing. That can become particularly problematic if it's a controversial topic that has to do with their personal identity, their political affiliation, so you've got to tread carefully.

How can interdisciplinary collaboration improve the dissemination of accurate information in pediatric dermatology?

The information environment is so chaotic now, it's so noisy. So, I think clinicians, and I think professional organizations, need to partner with the researchers that understand what effective communication looks like. So, that might be sociologists, communication experts, science comm [communication] people like me, you've got to do that.

But we also need to partner with graphic artists, with artists, with comedians, with people who are good storytellers. We have to do all of that to create content that is not only scientifically accurate, but is engaging and that we know will have an impact on the audience.

What are the main challenges in addressing cultural and language barriers in pediatric dermatology, and what effective solutions or best practices exist to address them?

I'm really fortunate that I'm part of an organization called #ScienceUpFirst. So, this is an initiative to fight misinformation on social media, really in pop culture more broadly, and to do it in a way that is culturally sensitive, that speaks to different communities.

So, we engage with those communities, we co-create content with those communities, we find academic and community leaders in those communities to be ambassadors. I think that that is what we need, too. We need to have diverse voices, we need to understand the diverse values that are out there and make content that is relevant to those communities and relevant to those individuals that hold those diverse values. You know what, it's an incredibly rewarding process and one that has great benefit.