ABSTRACT
The medical profession regards communication and interpersonal skills as necessary qualifications for physicians to possess. The ability to interact successfully with patients and others is regarded as a necessity for physicians if they are to be able to provide good medical care for patients, and it is an acknowledged goal of good medical education. As a consequence, many medical schools produce new physicians each year who continue to display a lack of balance between an emphasis on curing and an emphasis on caring. Another vital element of effective medical communication is clarity in the written and spoken material that physicians produce. Confused writing and speaking by physicians can be a danger to patients and others because it lends itself to misinterpretation and misunderstanding of its intended meaning. Health and wellness are topics of great interest to both patients and the general public, and physicians no longer seem to be the primary sources of such information for patients.
