{
  "id": 15933339,
  "title": "Study finds health care provider photos in waiting rooms can strengthen patient trust",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/study-finds-health-care-provider-photos-in-waiting-rooms-can",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-21T19:00:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-health-photos-rooms-patient.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "A Florida State University study reveals that displaying health care provider photographs in clinic waiting rooms can enhance certain aspects of patient trust before patients even meet their providers. The research, titled \"First Impressions Matter: The Influence of Provider Photographs on Medical Trust Among Minority Women,\" was conducted by Amy Huber and Rachel L. Bailey and published in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal. The study involved 343 Black and Hispanic women aged 18 to 44 and found that provider photographs improved perceptions of providers' commitment to patients, with Black participants rating providers of the same racial or ethnic background more favorably in fairness and communication skills. However, provider identity did not significantly affect trust ratings among Hispanic participants. The findings suggest that simple, low-cost design changes can strengthen provider-patient relationships and potentially contribute to better health outcomes.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}