Profession medical communication plays a vital role in health communicationprogram. This is important in many ways, such as: Encourages the approval of bestpractices; creates new ideas and standards of care; changes or creates new clinical priorities.The overall aim of professional medical communications efforts is to implements practicesthat result in the best patient outcomes, regardless of the original approach to behavioralchange (Schiavo 2014).There is a large and growing literature documenting the gap between expectations andthe actual performance of behaviors related to participation in health care and prevention.Review topics in the Cochrane Library indicate that most interventions to increase consumerengagement include promoting patient medication compliance, chronic disease self-management, and traditional health promotion behaviors around smoking, diet, andexercise. Efforts to enhance clinical encounters have largely focused on encouragingpatients to ask questions through coaching or written encouragement. Another emphasis hasbeen on individuals to increase self-care, improve health literacy, and assist with clinicaldecision making. Behaviors that clinicians can use to better the possible risks related tolimited health literacy include showing interest in questions, explanation of forms, andconfirming understanding through techniques such as teach-back and use of visual aids.However, the evidence that training in communication skills for clinicians leads toimprovements in health outcomes are mixed. Similarly, the evidence that patient-centeredconsultations can improve health outcomes is limited (Adams 2010).ReferencesAdams, R. J. (2010). Improving health outcomes with better patient understanding andeducation. Risk management and healthcare policy, 3: 61–72.Schiavo, R. (2014). Health communication from theory to practice (2nd ed.). San Francisco,CA. Jossey-Bass.
