The House I Live In Discussion
Healthcare problems
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Medical error: 3rd leading cause of death
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Costs are skyrocketing: changes needed to avoid bankruptcy
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Quality of care needs improvement
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Lack of patient/care-giver communication
Indicators of Problems
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Variation in treatment
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C-section rates: 45% vs. 20%
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End of life stays: 29 days vs. 16 days, 92 visits vs. 48 visits
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Evidence disconnect: At patient and physician level
Communication solutions
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Patient-doctor communication: reduce overtreatment for cancer procedures, end of life care
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Interpersonal communication: discussing tough issues (social support, open communication
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Public education: science communication, strategic communication
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Group communication: team based care, social network analysis
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Avatars
Avatars
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Avatars: Digital representation of person controlled by a user
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Agent: Digital representation of a person controlled by a computer
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In health settings, avatars are more persuasive
Advantages
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Nonverbal cues can be communicated
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Projection of ailments: showing how people change over time (what happens when you smoke cigarettes, if you get treatment for cancer then this could happen, etc.); showing physical changes, inclusion of past diagnoses
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Users embody avatars: creates realistic environment
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Users’ actual behavior
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Customization: Avatars mirror actual self
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Typical physical appearance (including health ailments)
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Doctors could monitor avatars to demonstrate future health outcomes
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Active creation: more invested when able to shape avatar, become more receptive to health messages
Transformed Facial Similarity as a Political Cue: A Preliminary Investigation
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When the candidate looked similar to the participant, the participant was more likely to agree with their platform
Avatars cont’d
Social Cognitive Theory
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Vicarious reinforcement
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Learn from social observation (witnessing positive and negative outcomes)
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Expectations are created
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Environmental similarity can be maximized (physical, personality, attitudes/beliefs)
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If identification is achieved, self-efficacy is likely to be affected
Health Research on Avatars
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Exercise
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Phase 1 exercise: Watching avatars (who are not mirrored after participant) exercise
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Phase 2: remain inactive
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Phase 3: Make decision about continuing to exercise
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Participants randomly assigned to a changing avatar (lose weight, physical appearance changes, etc.) or a stable avatar
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Having a changing avatar increased voluntary exercising in the study
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Virtual representations of self (VRS)
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Constant technological advances: digital photographs and head modeling software
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Results in increase in similarity and identification
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Compare the effects of a traditional public service announcement to the effects of seeing and avatar in virtual environment
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Constant incremental changes through interactive decision making by the user
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Another study
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Participants observed an avatar for 5 minutes
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Avatar of self running on treadmill
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Avatar of other running on a treadmill
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Avatar doing nothing
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Next day they contacted participants about exercising activity
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Virtual self participants exercised more than an hour longer than those in other conditions
Potential Limitations
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Costly to build virtual environments: the more advanced and immersed, the more it costs
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Possible inaccurate self-reporting
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Privacy of online information
Gaming
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