Physician-patient communication is important for improving patient satisfaction and health outcomes. Good communication involves listening to the patient, understanding their perspective on their illness, and discussing treatment options empathetically. It also requires providing information to patients about their diagnosis, prognosis, and recommended tests or procedures. Formal training in communication skills can help physicians communicate more effectively with patients.

1. Physician Patient Communication
The process of curing a patient requires an approach which involves considerations
beyond treating a disease. It requires several skills in a doctor along with technical expertise.
Studies have shown that good communication skills in a doctor improve patient’s overall
satisfaction. There are certain basic principles of practicing good communication. Patient
listening, empathy, and paying attention to the paraverbal and non-verbal components of the
communication are the important ones that are frequently neglected. Proper information
about the nature, course and prognosis of the disease is beneficial. Besides, patients and
attendants should always be explained about the necessity and yield of expensive
investigations and risks/benefits involved in invasive procedures. One should be extremely
cautious while managing difficult encounters and breaking bad news. Formal training of the

2. doctors in improving communication skills is necessary and has proven to improve overall
outcome.
The importance of patient-centered care and cross-cultural communication as a means of
improving health care quality across patient groups is obvious. Differences between physicians
and patients, including culture, gender, race, and religion, can introduce bias into patient–
physician communication. Two seminal studies have documented differences in how race and
gender can affect care. For example, African American patients were substantially less likely to
report equal speaking time compared with white patients.
Tips and Strategies. The basis for an effective patient provider relationship occurs through
proper interview technique. It is patient centered, based on creating the proper environment
that encourages the patient to give personal high quality information. This occurs through both
verbal statements, the behavioral context within which it is said and in relation to facilitative
non-verbal behaviors that create a comfortable environment and help create a partnership of
care:
1. Accept the reality of the disorder
Many providers may have difficulty accepting functional GI or other somatic syndromes as bona
fide since there is no biomarker or specific diagnostic test. It drives behaviors such as
frequently ordering of tests or communicating uncertainty. These are patients who desperately
want to be believed. The solution here is to accept the diagnosis as real and focus on the
commitment to work with the patient and his/her illness by listening communicating interest
and concern and offering support.
2. Listen Actively
The clinical data is obtained through an active process of listening, observing and facilitating.
Questions should evolve from what the patient says. If uncertain of the patient’s response, it

3. helps to restate the information asking for clarification, and this reaffirms to the patient the
provider’s commitment to understand.
3. Elicit the Patient’s Illness Schema
To properly negotiate treatment, the provider must identify how the patient understands the
illness. In doing so a dialog can begin that will lead to a mutually specified set of goals. For
example, even with years of symptoms, patients may expect the physician to diagnose a
different, structural disease and affect a cure. But the provider sees this as a chronic disorder
requiring ongoing management. Thus, these differences must be reconciled in order for the
patient to accept treatment and cope with the disorder.
4. Stay Attuned to Questioning Style and Non-Verbal Messages
Often, it’s not what you say, but how you say it that makes the difference. In general, the
physician wants to communicate nonjudgmental interest in an environment of comfort,
support and security.
5. Offer Empathy
The physician provides empathy by demonstrating an understanding of the patient's pain and
distress, while maintaining an objective and observant stance. An empathic statement would
be: "I can see how difficult it has been for you to manage with all these symptoms" or “I can see
how much this has affected your life”. Providing empathy improves patient satisfaction and
adherence to treatment.
6. Negotiate
The patient and physician must mutually agree on treatment options. The provider should then
ask about the patient's personal experience, understanding and interests in various treatments,
and then provide choices that are consistent with the patient's beliefs. Negotiation is

4. particularly important in certain situations such as recommending an antidepressant or when
referring to a psychologist for PTSD or treatment of other psychological symptoms.
Good communication skills have been considered extremely important for medical
practitioners in the western world since decades. Its significance is now being acknowledged in
the US and some authors have expressed the view that it is “the need of the hour” to train
medical professionals in this important yet ignored aspect in clinical medicine. Follow these
steps to maintain good communication with your patients.