CORR Insights^®: Patients With Greater Symptom Intensity and More Disability are More Likely to be Surprised by a Hand Surgeon’s Advice

Excerpt

Clear and concise communication between the physician and the patient is an important part of a well-functioning physician-patient relationship. Good physicians continue to develop the ability to communicate in ways that are technically precise, yet still compassionate and empathic. But for many reasons, sometimes information is lost in translation. Much is being done to understand this gap in knowledge and its causes [1, 3, 4]. We now have validated psychological tools that allow us to examine perceptions, behaviors, and coping strategies. The current tools, such as the DASH, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire-2, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Short Health Anxiety Inventory-5, Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 inventories are excellent [2]. These are validated tests that now give us a broader understanding of outcomes and typical values in certain disease processes. With these tools, we can develop a deeper understanding of our own communication and teaching skills. Using them, healthcare providers can better recognize how a particular patient will absorb technical information, and physicians can anticipate and react accordingly. But what causes these gaps in communication? Is it the educational level? Psychological factors? The environment in which the knowledge is transmitted or cultural factors from both parties that lends itself to poor communication? The existence of this communication gap requires careful evaluation. The study by Strooker and colleagues begins to define those parameters. …