This Is My Story (TIMS), a Five-Year Thematic Analysis of Patient Narratives from a Novel Intervention in an Academic Hospital

Background/Objective: This is My Story (TIMS) is a patient-centered, interview-based audio narrative program that provides a humanistic intervention to help the medical team understand more information about a patient’s story that is not routinely captured in their medical chart. The goal was to analyze themes present in the collected TIMS interview narratives and determine how they correspond to the specific interview prompts and discover whether there are any broader patterns and categories in responses. Methods: This is a secondary research study using retrospectively collected audio interviews, with hospitalized patients or their legally authorized representative, who provided their oral consent for the recording and future use of these interviews. A total of 362 TIMS interviews make up a subset of data for the reflexive thematic analysis, in which researchers analyzed, with some AI-assisted analysis, the themes that were present when the patient answered four structured interview questions. Results: The most common themes found were Experiences and Quality of Care, Family and Social Connections, Peace and Well-being, Joy and Meaning in Life, and Preferences and Personal Identity. Conclusions: The themes discovered in response to the four structured questions were directly related and influenced by the questions in which they correspond to, but there is also overlap between the questions, suggesting that each contributed to an overall cohesive patient narrative.