"Best practice" for patient-centered communication: a narrative review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Communication
• Clinical Practice

Background:

• Physician-patient communication is a recognized essential competency.
• There is a growing consensus on defining key components of physician-patient communication.
• Emphasis is placed on both teaching and assessing physician communication skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review literature supporting the efficacy of good physician communication skills.
• To help define essential physician-patient communication skills for training and assessment.

Main Methods:

• Narrative review of existing literature.
• Synthesis of evidence on physician communication behaviors and patient outcomes.

Main Results:

• Strong evidence links physician communication behaviors to positive patient outcomes (recall, understanding, adherence).
• Consensus exists on best practices: fostering relationships, information exchange, shared decision-making, emotional support, and behavior enablement.
• Key communication components include fostering relationships, gathering/providing information, decision-making, emotional response, and enabling behavior.

Conclusions:

• Communication skills are integral to physician competence.
• Enhancing communication skills requires significant changes in undergraduate and graduate medical education.
• Faculty commitment and understanding are critical for developing physician communication skills.