Doctor-patient communication: a review.

TLDR

Doctor‑patient communication is essential for building therapeutic relationships and delivering high‑quality care, yet many patients are dissatisfied due to communication breakdowns and clinicians often overestimate their skills, prompting extensive literature on the topic. This review aims to synthesize existing research on doctor‑patient communication. The authors conducted a comprehensive literature review of studies on doctor‑patient communication.

Abstract

Effective doctor-patient communication is a central clinical function in building a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship, which is the heart and art of medicine. This is important in the delivery of high-quality health care. Much patient dissatisfaction and many complaints are due to breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship. However, many doctors tend to overestimate their ability in communication. Over the years, much has been published in the literature on this important topic. We review the literature on doctor-patient communication.