Description
Doctor-patient communication, referring to both verbal and non-verbal interactions between doctors and patients, is important for information exchange, interpersonal relationship building, and shared decision-making in medical contexts. We used wearable eye-tracking to investigate how gaze behavior is directed in different consultation-compositions (1-on-1, 1-on-2, and 1-on-many), and during different consultation activities (discussing scan results, a neurological examination). We analysed both patients’ and the neurologist’s gaze (e.g., total dwell time and average fixation duration) at different Areas-of-Interest (AOIs; face, body, screen, companion(s)). For a smaller subset (n=3), we also provide in-depth descriptions of mutual and joint gaze states across different consultation-compositions and consultation-activities. We found that patients and the neurologist predominantly gazed at each other’s faces, but they also looked at other locations and objects (e.g., bodies, screen, room). Gaze at different AOIs was slightly influenced by the presence of companions, and strongly dependent on different consultation-activities. Together, these findings contribute to a more functional and contextualised account of gaze behavior in doctor-patient communication.| Period | 2 Sept 2026 |
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| Event title | European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM) |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 23 |
| Location | Ulm, GermanyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |