Improving doctor-patient communication

Not an option, but a necessity

In most Western countries healthcare systems are changing; political and economic forces are behind the growth of profit driven medicine, managed care, and an increasingly technological focus. Paradoxically, at a time of global communication and the “Net generation,” we are faced with a breakdown in communication between patients and doctors, increasing patient dissatisfaction, rising numbers of complaints and claims for malpractice, and abandonment of conventional medicine for alternatives that are often unproved.1

What do patients want? Most complaints by patients and the public about doctors deal with problems of communication not with clinical competency.2 The commonest complaint is that doctors do not listen to them. Patients want more and better information about their problem and the outcome, more openness about the side effects of treatment, relief of pain and emotional distress, and advice on what they can …