Designing Health Technologies for Immigrant Communities: Exploring Healthcare Providers' Communication Strategies with Patients

TL;DR

The paper addresses the gap in understanding how healthcare providers communicate with immigrant patients in developed countries, focusing on the Hmong community in Minneapolis. It employs a constructivist qualitative approach with 15 provider interviews and clinic observations to uncover four communication strategies: acknowledging fears and cultural flexibility, leveraging strong social ties, gradual trust-building in long-term care, and adapting language through storytelling and visuals. It then translates these findings into design recommendations, proposing adaptive communication styles and social-dynamics-aware health technologies to support culturally competent care. The work advances HCI design for immigrant health by providing concrete, context-sensitive implications that can reduce disparities and improve engagement in chronic and preventive care.

Abstract

Patient-provider communication is an important aspect of successful healthcare, as it can directly lead to positive health outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients in socially marginalized communities, especially developing countries, and applied identified factors to technology development. However, there is limited understanding of how providers work with patients from immigrant populations in a developed country. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 providers working with patients from an immigrant community with unique cultural characteristics, we identified providers' effective communication strategies, including acknowledgment, community involvement, gradual care, and adaptive communication practices (i.e., adjusting the communication style). Based on our findings, we highlight cultural competence and discuss design implications for technologies to support health communication in immigrant communities. Our suggestions propose approaches for HCI researchers to identify practical, contextualized cultural competence for their health technology design.