ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine the intergroup dynamics in health care contexts and their implications for quality of patient care. This is a relatively new area in health communication, which has focused on health promotion (at the population and mass communication level) and health professional-patient communication (at the interpersonal level). These foci potentially implicate intergroup communication, but they have been studied largely from a bio-psychosocial perspective, emphasizing individual perceptions, decisions, and behavior change.
