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Oluranti Aladesanmi, MD, MPH

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Tarn et al¹ have studied an important aspect of the physician-patient interaction, specifically, the communication of important information about new medication started by the physician. They report a lack of adequate content of physician communication during the interaction. During encounters when new medication therapies were started, physicians stated the name, explained the purpose, and discussed adverse effects in 74%, 87%, 35% of these encounters, respectively. Instructions on the duration of treatment, explicit instructions about the number of tablets to take, and explanation of the frequency or timing of dosing were given in 34%, 55%, 58% of these encounters, respectively.

The authors studied the core communication skill of "providing clear instructions and explanations," 1 of the 3 core skills of "patient education and counseling." The other 2 are "eliciting the patient's perspective" and "assessing patient understanding," as taught by Yedidia et al.²

An effective way to improve . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED LETTER

Medication Adherence and Physician Communication Skills—Reply
Derjung M. Tarn, John Heritage, and Neil S. Wenger
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(8):860.
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