Medical Interaction Research Archive (MIRA)
A centerpiece of our research program is our unobtrusive system for video recording patient-provider interactions. We have spent +20 years developing our Medical Interaction Research Archive (MIRA), a rich and rare archive comprised of +1,200 video recordings of people with cancer and their families discussing topics related to cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship with their providers. MIRA’s recordings were gathered using IRB-approved procedures in clinical settings including four NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers all located in major urban areas. Patients range in age from 18 to ~ 80 years old, and ~ 40% self-identify as Black/African American and ~ 60% self-identify as White, making it the largest video archive of racially diverse medical interactions in the U.S.
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All patient participants in MIRA were diagnosed with a solid tumor, with breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancers as the most frequent diagnoses. Most recordings are from unique patient-provider dyads with fewer than 50 that include multiple recordings of the same patient. At least 70 providers appear in the video recordings. The duration of most patient-provider relationships is under a year with many videos recording the first appointment between the patient and their provider. All participants provided consent to be video recorded and provided self-reported data of pre-visit characteristics and attitudes and post-visit perceptions of each other and the interactions.
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The recordings have been transcribed and coded by trained research assistants for a wide range of communication behaviors (e.g., patient active participation, providers’ patient-centered communication), and include various patient and provider outcome measures (e.g., patient trust). Our NIH- and ACS-funded research (e.g., RSG-20-026-01-CPHPS, Hamel, PI; R21MD011766, Hamel, PI; R03CA195147, Hamel, PI; R01CA200718, Eggly, PI) has supported the creation and maintenance of MIRA. Using MIRA, we have conducted descriptive and interventional studies of clinical communication including patient active participation, providers’ patient-centered communication, nonverbal communication; and topics such as treatment costs, racial attitudes and health disparities, clinical trials, bad news, pain, and end-of-life.
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The data in MIRA are available for external collaborators. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Dr. Hamel @ cecrlabresearch@gmail.com.