Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2007 Sep-Oct;5(5):387-94.
doi: 10.1370/afm.721.

Improving communication between doctors and breast cancer patients

Moira Stewart  1 , Judith Belle Brown, Joanne Hammerton, Allan Donner, Alan Gavin, Ronald L Holliday, Tim Whelan, Ken Leslie, Irene Cohen, Wayne Weston, Tom Freeman
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Improving communication between doctors and breast cancer patients

Moira Stewart et al. Ann Fam Med. 2007 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: We wanted to assess the effectiveness of intensive education for physicians compared with a traditional session on communicating with breast cancer patients.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in practices in London, Hamilton, and Toronto, Canada, with 17 family physicians, 16 surgeons, and 18 oncologists, and with 102 patients of the surgeons and oncologists. Doctors were randomized to 1 of 2 continuing education approaches: a traditional 2-hour version (control group), or a new 6-hour intensive version including exploring the patients' perspectives and reviewing videotapes and receiving feedback (intervention group). Communication behavior of the physicians was measured objectively both before and after the intervention. As well, 4 postintervention patient outcomes were measured, by design only for surgeons and oncologists: patient-centerdness of the visit, satisfaction, psychological distress, and feeling better.

Results: No significant differences were found on the communication score of the intervention vs the control physicians when controlling for preintervention communication scores. Intervention family physicians, however, had significantly higher communication subscores than control family physicians. Also, patients of the intervention surgeons and oncologists were significantly more satisfied (scores of 82.06 vs 77.78, P = .03) and felt better (88.2% vs 70.6%, P=.02) than patients of the control surgeons and oncologists when controlling for covariates and adjusting for clustering within doctor.

Conclusions: The continuing medical education intervention was effective in terms of some but not all physician and patient outcomes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Diagram of participants in the study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lerman C, Daly M, Walsh WP, et al. Communication between patients with breast cancer and health care providers. Determinants and implications. Cancer. 1993;72(9):2612–2620. - PubMed
    1. Ford S, Fallowfield L, Lewis S. Can oncologists detect distress in their out-patients and how satisfied are they with their performance during bad news consultations? Br J Cancer. 1994;70(4):767–770. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hall JA, Dornan MC. Meta-analysis of satisfaction with medical care: description of research domain and analysis of overall satisfaction levels. Soc Sci Med. 1988;27(6):637–644. - PubMed
    1. Golin CE, DiMatteo MR, Gelberg L. The role of patient participation in the doctor visit. Implications for adherence to diabetes care. Diabetes Care. 1996;19(10):1153–1164. - PubMed
    1. Stewart MA. Effective physician-patient communication and health outcomes: a review. CMAJ. 1995;152(9):1423–1433. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types