ABSTRACT
The case for communication skills - for teaching, for research, for use with patients - is made routinely these days. Effective communication between doctor and patient is a central clinical function that cannot be delegated. Equally, clinical skills can be practiced where the ostensible subject is communication, and the result of this kind of contextualization can easily be a more economical approach than one might imagine. This chapter shows how communication skills were measured in the various studies and how various types of communication are interrelated. In the UK, Tomorrow's Doctors, published by the General Medical Council with the explicit aim of driving undergraduate medical education, was arguing in its first iteration, in 1993, that good communication was a core skill for undergraduates to master. The ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with patients, patients' families, colleagues, and others with whom physicians must exchange information in carrying out their responsibilities.
