Introduction

An evidence-based approach The authors of this book believe passionately in the importance of communication skills in medicine – our overriding objective in writing this book and its companion has been to help improve the standard of doctor-patient communication. However, belief and passion are not enough to produce changes in medical education or clinical practice. Without evidence to back our claims that improving doctors’ communication skills results in better outcomes for patients and doctors, we cannot expect a relatively new discipline such as communication skills to make substantial inroads into an already crowded curriculum of learning, whether in undergraduate, residency or continuing medical education.