Lead PI

• Timothy W. Bickmore

Co PIs

• Catharine Wang, Boston University
• Michael Paasche-Orlow, Boston University

Abstract

A family health history – incorporating a “family tree” along with health conditions for each family member – can significantly improve disease risk assessments, even when all available genetic tests have been done. The family history is crucially important for determining risk for many chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, and represents an integration of disease risk stemming from genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors. Despite this, most health providers do a poor job of collecting family health histories, if they do it at all.

The purpose of this project is to develop a relational agent that simulates the behavior of a genetics counselor in collecting a family health history from individuals by interviewing them about their family. Preliminary testing has shown that patients recruited from a safety net hospital (40% low health literacy) find the agent significantly easier to use compared with a conventional web-based tool.

This work is a collaboration with Dr. Catharine Wang at the Boston University School of Public Health and Dr. Michael Paasche-Orlow at the Boston Medical Center.

Funding

NIH National Human Genome Research Institute

Related Publications

• Wang, Catharine, et al. “Utility of a virtual counselor (VICKY) to collect family health histories among vulnerable patient populations: A randomized controlled trial.” Patient Education and Counseling 104.5 (2021): 979-988. DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2021.02.034
• Cerda Diez, Maria et al. “Designing and Evaluating a Digital Family Health History Tool for Spanish Speakers.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 16,24 4979. 7 Dec. 2019, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16244979
• Wang, C., Bickmore, T., Bowen, D. et al. “Acceptability and feasibility of a virtual counselor (VICKY) to collect family health histories.” Genet Med 17, 822–830 (2015). DOI: 10.1038/gim.2014.198