OBJECTIVE To examine whether an educational intervention that focused on physician communication training influenced physician empathic expression during patient interactions. METHODS This study used a quantitative research method to investigate the influence of communication training on physician-expressed empathy using two measures (global and hierarchical) of physician empathic behavior. ...

Recently, the Internet has fostered a rapid rise in consumer-generated ratings. However, limited research has examined how these ratings reflect the opinions of the population at large, notably in the domain of professional services, where quality is often opaque to consumers. Building on the word-of-mouth research literature, we examine the relationship between online ratings and the offline p...

PURPOSE Physicians prescribing new medications often do not convey important medication-related information. This study tests an intervention to improve physician-patient communication about newly prescribed medications. METHODS We conducted a controlled clinical trial of patients in 3 primary care practices, combining data from patient surveys with audio-recorded physician-patient interactio...

BACKGROUND Few studies document differences in patient satisfaction with physicians in the elderly (> or = 65 years) and compare it to non-elderly (<65 years) patients. METHODS A cross-sectional survey study on a convenience sample of 20,901 patients rated their recent visit to a physician through a web-based survey. Survey included validated questions based on aspects of physician care pract...

PURPOSE Physicians prescribing new medications often do not convey important medication-related information. This study tests an intervention to improve physician-patient communication about newly prescribed medications. METHODS We conducted a controlled clinical trial of patients in 3 primary care practices, combining data from patient surveys with audio-recorded physician-patient interactio...