Balancing Efficiency and Empathy: Healthcare Providers' Perspectives on AI-Supported Workflows for Serious Illness Conversations in the Emergency Department
arXiv:2506.00241v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Serious Illness Conversations (SICs), discussions about values and care preferences for patients with life-threatening illness, rarely occur in Emergency Departments (EDs), despite evidence that early conversations improve care alignment and reduce unnecessary interventions. We interviewed 11 ED providers to identify challenges in SICs and opportunities for technology support, with a focus on AI. Our analysis revealed a four-stage SIC workflow (identification, preparation, conduction, documentation) and barriers at each stage, including fragmented patient information, limited time and space, lack of conversational guidance, and burdensome documentation. Providers expressed interest in AI systems for synthesizing information, supporting re
Authors:Menglin Zhao, Zhuorui Yong, Ruijia Guan, Kai-Wei Chang, Adrian Haimovich, Kei Ouchi, Timothy Bickmore, Zhan Zhang, Bingsheng Yao, Dakuo Wang, Smit Desai
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Abstract:Serious Illness Conversations (SICs), discussions about values and care preferences for patients with life-threatening illness, rarely occur in Emergency Departments (EDs), despite evidence that early conversations improve care alignment and reduce unnecessary interventions. We interviewed 11 ED providers to identify challenges in SICs and opportunities for technology support, with a focus on AI. Our analysis revealed a four-stage SIC workflow (identification, preparation, conduction, documentation) and barriers at each stage, including fragmented patient information, limited time and space, lack of conversational guidance, and burdensome documentation. Providers expressed interest in AI systems for synthesizing information, supporting real-time conversations, and automating documentation, but emphasized concerns about preserving human connection and clinical autonomy. This tension highlights the need for technologies that enhance efficiency without undermining the interpersonal nature of SICs. We propose design guidelines for ambient and peripheral AI systems to support providers while preserving the essential humanity of these conversations.
Comments: To appear at ACM CHI'26
Subjects:
Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2506.00241 [cs.HC]
(or arXiv:2506.00241v2 [cs.HC] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.00241
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791301
DOI(s) linking to related resources
Submission history
From: Smit Desai [view email] [v1] Fri, 30 May 2025 21:15:57 UTC (1,489 KB) [v2] Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:06:18 UTC (10,956 KB)
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