Doctors Talking With Patients/Patients Talking With Doctors

Medical visits are often less effective and satisfying than they would be if doctors and patients better understood the communication most needed for attainment of mutual health goals. Here, professors and Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School join forces to help us understand this vital issue, and the means to best facilitate communication that brings more effective medical care and happier, healthier consumers. The verbal and nonverbal exchanges that take place between doctor and patient affect both participants, and can result in a range of positive or negative psychological reactions--including comfort, alarm, irritation, or resolve. "Talk," on verbal, non-verbal and withholding levels, is shown by extensive research to have far-reaching impact.

Debra L. Roter holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Nursing.

Judith A. Hall is Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University.