Perpetual contact
SHARK2: a large vocabulary shorthand writing system for pen-based computers
Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Human-Computer Interaction
In-situ evaluation of a telephone triage mobile application for in-home elderly care
Proceedings of the 3rd Mexican Workshop on Human Computer Interaction
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services
INTERACT'11 Proceedings of the 13th IFIP TC 13 international conference on Human-computer interaction - Volume Part II
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Talk is often suspended during medical consultations while the clinician interacts with the patient's records and other information. This study of four general practitioners (GPs) focused on these suspensions and the adjacent conversational turns. Conversation analysis revealed how GPs took action to close conversations down prior to attending to the records, resulting in a 'free turn' that could be taken up by either GP or patient. The durations of the intervening pauses were also analysed, exposing a hitherto unobserved 10-second timeframe within which both GP and patient showed a preference for the conversation to be resumed. Resumption was more likely to be achieved within 10s when the GP's records were paper-based rather than computer-based. Subsequent analysis of topic changes on resumption of talk has revealed a 5-second timeframe, also undocumented; when pauses exceed this timeframe, it is rare for the previous topic to be resumed without a restatement. Data recorded in the home suggest that these timeframes are also present in family conversations. We argue for considering the two timeframes when designing systems for use in medical consultations and other conversational settings, and discuss possible outcomes.